Two Twin Double Dashers
by personqwer
Summary: After just barely surviving their game unplugging many years ago, the Turbo Twins found themselves living homeless for what seemed like forever with Turbo presumed dead. But when they hear of a new place that holds games outside of the Arcade, they decide to take their chances and investigate this foreign place... (Small mid-movie AU. Not very much changed.)
1. Life without a Game

Though previously quiet, Game Central Station suddenly burst into life as many of the games' gates became active as the arcade closed. Every day when Mr. Litwak's arcade's open hours ended, metaphorically speaking, the games' hours began. Technically, the games were always active, and they never really 'ended'. The games just spent half of the time differently. The daytime half always working, and their version of work was being in their games for the players to play with. A Quarter Alert always sounded so the characters in their game knew exactly when and where they had to be in their game, so the players could casually play the game to entertain themselves. If the players were entertained, they'd play more often. If a certain game got played a lot, it had a high chance of not getting unplugged. Getting unplugged is one of the worst fates a character could get. You either die inside the game before you escape into Game Central Station, or you escaped in time to find yourself homeless basically forever.

That was the poor unfortunate fate two twins, both wearing identical blue jumpsuits with square-like helmets with a single white stripe on the top, suffered. Their, and the main character Turbo's game _TurboTime _got unplugged many years ago. The siblings barely got out alive, both of them remembering that day like it was yesterday. Back then, when _TurboTime_ was still plugged in, Litwak was a bit quicker to unplugging games that went wrong. That day Turbo, the main character of _TurboTime_, got jealous of a game called _RoadBlasters_ that got plugged in and rained on his parade, him being the most popular in the arcade to be played by the players. _RoadBlasters_ was a more modern game, to the players, it was a better and more engaging game. The twins both knew this, but Turbo was furious. He craved attention and he would not seem to tolerate some other "cooler" game stealing his thunder, and he did the unspeakable. Not long after _RoadBlasters_ being plugged in, Turbo got in his car, which the twins remembered it to be named the Red Rocket or something like it, the car's name was fuzzy to them by now, and Turbo drove it over to _RoadBlasters_ while it was being played, which is a really really bad idea, and the twins remember seeing him do it from their screen, he drove across the screen a few times and caused the _RoadBlasters_ car to crash a few times. He was yelling his famous catchphrase, "Turbotastic!". The twins were horrified to watch when Turbo literally crashed his racecar into the _Roadblasters_ one. The whole screen turned into a glitch, and Mr. Litwak set that game out of order. But, _TurboTime_ got put out of order as well, because it couldn't be played without Turbo.

The twins both remember them running for their lives as the time to their unplugging doom came nearer and nearer way too fast. They had just gotten out of _TurboTime_ and found themselves looking back into the tunnel that was once theirs as the colors and pixels and basically everything they had ever called home swirled into a black pit of nothing, and the Surge Protector shooed them away as they went into shock. He told them an empty socket wasn't the safest place to be standing around by.

The twins never forgot that day. And they both believed they never will, either. Ted, the more sensitive one, often cried when he thought about that day, but eventually, over the years he got over it. His brother, Teddy, was a bit tougher but would still get upset at the thought. They both haven't seen Turbo since. They always assumed he was dead, always assuming he went down with _RoadBlasters_. Going down with a game you hate must have been terrible, the siblings always thought. They missed Turboa lot, even though he had gotten their game unplugged, was a proud, bit arrogant guy sometimes, always boasting about his winnings, they still saw him as family. But they haven't seen him and forever and they both accepted Turbo as just a bitter memory now.

The twins rose from the seats they slept on. They were half tempted to sleep on the green motherboard-patterned rug beneath them yesterday, but they decided against it because they were always reminded how many feet stepped on this thing every single day. Yawning, Teddy gets up and stretches as his brother makes a pathetic attempt to stretch without getting up. Game Central Station was starting to get noisy as it always did after hours.

"Good morning, Ted," Teddy starts, rubbing his bright yellow eyes to wake himself up further.

Ted awkwardly seems to lay down and so a long stretch on the seat, putting his chin to his chest as he stretches his arm as far out as he can to the left. After he does that, he gets up and joins his brother, with a yawn for himself.

"Hey Teddy, have any dreams?" He sleepily asks itching at his arm, the one he slept on that night.

"Not really, you?" Teddy replies, facing his identical brother with a slight smile.

"I dreamt of _TurboTime_…" Ted starts, frowning and looking down. "And um, lets just say it was pretty nice until Turbo vanished…"

Ted awkwardly looks as his feet and shuffles them a bit. Teddy knows his brother well enough to tell he was bothered by that dream.

"What happened, Ted?"

Ted looks up, and the glisten in his eyes in his frown with a quivering lip told Teddy all he needed to know, it wasn't a good dream.

"You and Turbo were there, we just got done with a race, and Turbo.. I think he said something about _RoadBlasters_.. And then he just glitches really badly and vanished… A second later, our pixels are being ripped away from us as well as the whole game, and we get sucked into nothingness.." Ted awkwardly shudders, on the verge of crying but he stops himself by wiping his eyes. "I can still almost feel the pain…"

Teddy slowly nods. Ted sometimes had these nightmares about what happened. Teddy did too, but he handled them better and played them off a bit easier then Ted could. Teddy puts an arm around his brother's shoulders in an awkward side hug. That was all Ted needed, because he began to relax after that.

Not too far away from them, the four ghosts from _Pac-Man _float by muttering amongst themselves. Ted and Teddy overhear them say something they most likely heard from _Tapper's_

"I know, this is gonna be awesome. Gamecube characters this close to the arcade? Who knows what'll show up!"

"That kid who owns the Gamecube- man, did he choose a great place to live?"

"I heard from _Tapper's he's got a Mario game. And we already have a Mario game, two Marios? That'll be pretty amusing to watch."_

_Perplexed, the twins find themselves staring at the ghosts until they're out of range. They both looked at each other, and practically read each other's minds._

"_Gamecube? You have any idea what that is, Ted?" Teddy asks, going over the questions he has in his head._

_Ted shakes his head, but they are both thinking the same thought, and together, they both say quietly to each other,_

"_We should go see Tapper."_


	2. Tapper

_Oh hehe, I am beyond new at this. I've never actually had a account before now, so I'm all lost! I'll probably get the hang of it sooner or later, but thanks for reading! Because if you read this I'm assuming you're reading this silly little shortie story too. Enjoy, I might not be commenting on these chapters much anymore, though…_

_Did I forget to mention this is a bit Pre-Movie apparently?_

_Tapper's_ was on the other side of the Station. But the twins didn't mind walking. Walking was all they were able to do ever since _TurboTime_ got unplugged. After all, they had to leave their cars behind if they wanted to live. Both Ted and Teddy missed their cars too, all those good times they had together with those vehicles, even though Turbo won about ninety-nine percent of the time, and when he lost, it was by sheer luck for the twins, or something went wrong with his car in-game, or the player just was an awful driver.

Teddy remembered how angry Turbo would get if the player just kept on crashing him into everything, he and Ted would drive past him over and over trying to contain their laughter for the sake of the game, and Turbo had to use every inch of his willpower to not throw an angry fit right there in front of the players. One time, he actually did throw Turbo's equivalent to a tantrum on screen, and the twins both remembered how nervous they were, but the player just thought it was a part of the game, thinking it was natural that the main racer would get mad if he kept crashing, thankfully. At least little "details" like that kept their game pretty popular, until _RoadBlasters _came out, of course. They apparently didn't need little accidental details to be "awesome". And besides, the _RoadBlasters_ gang was a bit wad of jerks. For as long as the twins knew them, at least. Which was at least a week. Not much longer than that would Turbo have let them keep raining on his proud little parade.

Passing by different characters, like Pac-Man himself and some soldiers from _Hero's Duty, _the twins felt sudden nostalgia once again. All these characters around them had homes, they were practically the only homeless ones at the moment, save for the Q*Bert gang, but neither of the boys could understand a word they were saying anyway, so their relationship was more "Wave at each other from across the Station when everyone else is working", unfortunately. So the twins basically only had themselves, and the only options they really had were to go to _BurgerTime_ or _Tapper's_ and just mope around. That was all they really could do, since they were about as useful as a racecar without it's wheels.

They both had made it to Tapper's pretty quick, as they saw it's gate in view. Many characters were in there already, Tapper's is one of the most popular spots for characters to hang out in the whole station. The twins walked fast, wanting together before it overcrowded and Tapper would be too busyto tell them any more. Which wasn't hard. Quickness was literally in their code. Especially Turbo, he and the two identical racers walked fast naturally, ate fast, and wrote fast with sloppy handwriting. Turbo often paced back and forth because he had a slight difficulty sitting completely still. Also, the twins preferred walking around while they talked to sitting down and having a conversation.

Entering _Tapper's_, the twins pushed past some _Street Fighter _characters, and sat down next to some Hero's Duty soldiers. Being new to the arcade, they seemed to be enjoying themselves. A few seats beside Teddy sat the massive, nine feet tall antagonist of _Fix it Felix, Jr, Ralph. He was having a drink by himself here like he usually did after work ended. The twins tended to kind of avoid him, everybody else seemed to so they didn't take their chances._

_After Tapper passed the soldiers their root beer, Teddy calls Tapper over,_

"_Hey, Tapper! You have a minute?"_

_Tapper looks over and walks over to the blue-themed racers. "How can I help you, boys?"_

_Ted thinks for a minute, recapping what the Pac-Man ghosts had said, then asks, "We heard out in Game Central that something about a player living near the arcade having a.. a 'Gamecube'?"_

_Tapper seems to understand immediately and his eyes light up a bit. "Ah, yes! I know about that. A few days ago some of those very characters from the Gamecube visited here. I told them all about this Arcade and they told me all about their own game. Games are very very different outside of the arcade, boys. Mechanics are different, there's disks and such, all kinds of complex stuff."_

_The two brothers both nod in harmony, Teddy speaking up first, "So, who exactly were those characters?"_

"_Well there was Mario and Luigi, and he had Toad with him who had brought along a few others I didn't get the names of. One was tall and thin with a purple hat, and the other was a short pink girl like Toad, only well, she looked like a girl. Had mushroom pigtails and everything."_

"_Mario and Luigi?" The sibling racers both ask at the same time. "So, you mean it's a different Mario and Luigi?"_

"_Yes, they are. A different Mario and Luigi from a different game outside the arcade."_

_Teddy leans in a bit closer, interested. "Anything else about their game in particular?"_

"_Well, they said something about their game being a racing game."_


	3. What if?

The twins' eyes both widened at the sound of a racing game. They had never been in one, save for _Sugar Rush_. When they went in that sweet little game they were greeted by some racers, and they had both heard it was ruled by a king named King Candy, but they had never met the king in person. Pff, what king would want to meet a couple of homeless twins who lost their own retro game and their only other family, Turbo?

"Racing.. Game..?" Ted starts, his response a bit delayed.

Tapper nods, and says with a smile, "Yep, you boys were originally from _TurboTime_, right? That ooold racing game from the beginning of this Arcade?" Tapper begins to wash out some beer mugs with a rag, then continues. "I'm sure if you could get the approval from the people from that game, you could go over there and race with them."

"We could.. Couldn't we?…" Teddy mumbles, suddenly having a flashback of racing in his own car against Turbo and his brother Ted on TurboTime's simple oval racetrack. He even remembered the dust Turbo would kick up with his car almost purposefully to get in the twin's faces, throwing them off as another one of his tricks. Turbo was a smart, but very devious racer, he always had another trick up his sleeve, whether it was just blowing dirt in the twin's faces and on their cars with his engine, puffing his car's exhaust to throw them off, or even getting the crazy idea to go crash his car in RoadBlasters to take it down… Turbo was just full of ideas, too bad most of them weren't leaning toward "good" in that sort of sense. He was quite the dirty racer, but the twins still loved him. Would this Gamecube game be anything like the good ol' days?

The twins' thoughts are interrupted by Ralph calling out Tapper, "Yo, Tapper, can I have another drink?"

Tapper replies, "Yes, Ralph, just a minute." He turns toward the twins, who not both have a bit of a dreamy look in their eyes, "I'll have to talk to you two later, I have work to do."

Tapper goes back to make some more root beer for his customers.

The twins just look at each other, each of their mouths slightly opened, and, reading each other's minds, they get up, and leave, still imagining all the wonders they might experience to be able to race again. Slightly trotting into a jog naturally, they reach the motherboard rug with the chairs all over it, and they plop down on the nearest empty two-seater one.

"…A racing game," Ted starts, the sides of his mouth breaking into an open-mouthed grin.

"Finally, another racing game not made of candy," Teddy says to nobody in particular, him grinning too, seeming to show off his yellow teeth.

"Outside of the arcade, though," Ted finishes, his grin shrinking. "How would we get there?"

"Didn't Tapper say something about them coming through the shorter gates that lead to the socket in the wall? I think that's where they came from- must have, if they're not from anywhere in the arcade, at least. That's the only gate- well, gates- that could possibly lead out of this place."

"I mean, well, what if the Mario and Luigi and all the rest of them don't like us? What if they don't let us race with them?" Ted asks nervously, sitting up and staring his brother down with serious and worried eyes.

Teddy sighs, but replies flatly, "I'm sure they'll have mercy on us- I'm sure if we tell them how much we've lost and never had for a whole bunch of years, they'll let us for sure!"

"I guess you're right, but what if we die in their game? We wont regenerate, would we?"

"No I guess not, but what do we have to lose? We don't really have anything but ourselves."

"I guess you're right, if only Turbo was here, he'd want to race again too…"

They both fall silent, just listening to the sounds of many people from all the different games heading toward new ones or just hanging out in the station as they explored their thoughts. Greif washed over them once again when they thought of Turbo, of if only they could have talked him out of crashing _RoadBlasters before he did all that.. Now he's gone. Gone for good. And both of the brothers felt partially responsible. _

_The twins didn't know how long they had just sat there in silence, but eventually, Teddy got up._

"_Well, I don't think we should just sit here and wallow in our own sorrow, Ted. Let's at least walk around- I feel like walking."_

"_Okay, Teddy, good idea," Ted says, getting off the uncomfortable chair and his brother walked off. Ted followed him, but oddly enough, they both subconsciously told themselves to investigate the gates at the end of Game Central Station. Curiosity got the best of them and they eventually turned toward those gates' direction and started walking a little bit faster._


	4. Royalty

_Lol, hey, it's Qwer again. Just wanted to note that this is gonna have to be an AU in order to make this fic work. Be creative- I know Hero's duty was plugged in only a week before the movie, but in order to make this fic work I'm gonna have to change the movie up bit. I kinda feel bad about doing so but I have ideas for this fic besides the Mario Kart being involved~_

Blissfully unaware of his old NPC's whereabouts, a king, with a large nose and bald head happily takes a walk around his castle. His castle was pink- no, _salmon, _and it being so large, he liked to just walk around and pace as he thought. After all- being an _energetic_ king, he did not like to sit still. He was the best racer in this candy land game- quickness was in his code! So much that it rubbed off on his daily actions. He used his hands a lot as he talked- it was a habit of his he's had for years. Many years. He's done it for as long as he could remember- ever since he was plugged in back in 1982-

Wait, what was he thinking? Hoo-hoo~ Of course he didn't exist for thirty years! Sugar Rush didn't exist for thirty years- this old man was going off his rocker~ Hoo-hoo~

The king often reassured himself that he couldn't be thinking about the days when he was.. First plugged in. Just in case something came along that was coded to read minds. Silly paranoia, when he was alone like this his mind would make up quite ridiculous scenarios. He'd very much prefer his mind to stay personal- he had many lies that had came out of his mouth for as long as he held the throne. Hoo-hoo, even existing was a lie!

_I have to stop that, _the king thought, grimacing as his stride slowed down a bit, _I am the greatest racer in this arcade and I must stay that way. _

Looking around at his _salmon_ walls, his mind wanders to the game he ruled, and grimaced.

_Even if the game I rule over drives me insane in more ways than one… _The king thought, shuddering. He was almost certain he'd be driven completely mad by the annoying theme song of Sugar Rush, candy everywhere, his all candy diet- with the occasional trip to Tapper's when he felt the need to get the heck out of this candy game- and the fact he was the king of fifteen nine year olds and a ton of candy npcs who did nothing but cheer on their personal character, and the fact that he had given up so much just to be the main character of a racing game again and get his attention back.

Sure, he got a lot of attention, he and his kart had the best stats of all of the racers, and had the best chance of winning compared to the others like Rancis or Taffyta, who were both pretty good, and the players often chose him, but he often asked himself _was it really worth it. _

He always told himself yes, of course, because he got what he wanted. The spotlight. Sugar Rush was one of the most popular games in the arcade, well matched only by Hero's Duty due to its modern technology involved and how impressive the game really was, but in consequence the monarch had to stay sane through so many years of a girly candy game in a mod-damn SALMON castle, act like a complete sugary and goofy king just to keep his act convincing, consider killing himself over his losses and how this game was barely any replacement at all. This game had no real action! If you fall off the track, you don't get seriously injured, you either fall safely on your wheels, or in something soft like a cupcake. The king gritted his teeth about how much a challenge this game WASN'T. He needed the threat of cracking his skull open to really give him a rush of adrenaline he can really enjoy, this game didn't have that. He really wanted to crash that annoying brat Taffyta into the wall of the tunnel whenever they raced, he was just so desperate for real action, he had to use all his willpower to control himself and suppress his sadistic side. But he couldn't, he HAD to keep these racers liking him, so he had to play "Fair". It was aggravating.

I mean what FUN was just racing and having to do it fairly 100 percent of the time? Getting hurt was a part of racing, and that was one thing the king missed from his old life. Ever since that stunt with RoadBlasters-

Wait. What's RoadBlasters? The king shouldn't know what RoadBlasters is… Hoo-hoo~

The king shook his head again. The more he thought about his old life, the more nostalgia would start to drown him, and his trusty assistant Sour Bill would notice, and swathe problem was, and the king would have to make up more ridiculous lies- Hoo-hoo~ Hopefully his lying tongue wouldn't get anyone suspicious. He's been safe for many years for ruling this place, but nobody should find out his secrets. But Sour Bill knows how he tore up the code of the… previous ruler…of this game, and locked up everyone's memories. But, he was reliable enough. Sour Bill knows if he says a word to anyone about that he'd be personally killed by the king himself, thrown in the fungeon if the king isn't found out- for drawing him that close. If Sour Bill couldn't be trusted, nobody could. The little green _cough drop _just feared about what the king would do to him if he told -considering his coding skills, and quite excellent ability to completely rip codes to shreds.

The king himself was quite proud of his ability to make it this far anyway. He lay in skilled hiding until Sugar Rush came out without being detected. Everyone thought he went down with RoadBlasters- hoo-hoo, boy they were wrong~

Mod, even the character model's tendency to do that ridiculous laugh was getting to his head. "Hoo-hoo", I mean really. He couldn't even laugh truthfully in this game. His laugh was somewhat "Maniac-like", the king's old NPC's often told him. Hah, a maniac laugh- as if! But, he had to admit, he did used to laugh a bit on the crazy side. It was in his coding, he guessed. But back then, he loved _everything_ about himself. He was the proudest guy in the arcade-he ruled it, metaphorically speaking. Being the most popular game. At only around thirty years of age that man he once was, was a star. An arrogant one, at that. Oh, if only he could be himself and show off that lovely helmet of his with the red T on it again. But no, if he wanted the spotlight, he had to be a bald king with a huge nose and stupid clothes. He's gotten used to it, of course. But he always wished to be himself again. Not just to look down and see his old jumpsuit again, but to just show the world he was still alive and thriving, be proud of his own body, and purely for the nostalgia of his old looks that reminded of his real game.

But no- he's a goofy little king who rules a bunch of candy kids.

How pathetic was that? Everyone must think he was a complete wuss. Back in his old life, he wasn't considered as weak and completely stupid looking and stupid acting by his peers. He crashed his car about a hundred times a day, and more often than that bashed his face into the steering wheel or got thrown out of it when he rammed a tree and felt blood all over his face, gushing out of his nose. He loved that in a way, made him feel tough, and everyone knew he was tough because he did that on a daily basis.

Until RoadBlasters came charging in. That game was tougher because it had explosions and all that crap his game didn't have. And what did everyone expect him to do? Wait around while RoadBlasters gets all the love, and wait until Litwak put him out of his misery? Fat chance.

Now where was he? Ah, yes. Oh how much he wished he could just have a dangerous race again. Later today, he just has to make a car at the bakery just to crash it. But that would make his subjects question, oh, blast it! This game is making him insane!

A voice interrupted his thoughts.

"King Candy?"

It was Sour Bill. Of course, Bill caught King Candy pacing back and forth as he was lost in his own thoughts. The monarch's expression was grim. Sour Bill noticed this, the king often did this when he was left alone. But whenever he asked what was wrong, King Candy gave him a short answer and completely dismissed the subject and moved onto something new. Bill knew better than to push his king any further than that.

"W-what is it, Sthour Bill?" the king replied, looking up from his pacing.

"I have news." The sour candy man replied.

"What kind of newsth?" King Candy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"About the games, but not in the arcade."

"Gamesth? Outsthide the arcade?" the ruler pressed on, stepping a bit closer eagerly.

"Yes, your highness, a player who lives close to the arcade got his hands on something called a Gamecube. He can play games on it. Like arcade games, but smaller, and portable. Meaning the game characters from the Gamecube could visit here and we could visit them if we wanted."

"R-really? Isth that all? Do you know what kindsth of gamesth they have?" King Candy asked again, looking a bit eager to see something new after awhile.

"The only thing we know so far is a racing game called Mario Kart: Double Dash." Bill replied flatly.

"A racing game…?" The monarch asked, trailing off as he thought of another racing game, perhaps one not as sugar-coated and sweet as this one was.

"Yes, sir, and even now as soon as we discovered them we saw two twins wearing blue jumpsuits and square helmets walk in the outlet that led to the wall to get to them."

King Candypaused, his eyes wide open.

"Two… twinsth?" he asked, raising his hands a tiny bit in front of him, starting to curl his fingers in as he thought about what his assistant had told him.

"Yes, your highness. Grey skin, yellow eyes, exactly alike. As alike as they can get, most likely their models copies of each other. Cant tell them apart at all."

"…Thosthe are the.. Turbo twinsth, aren't they?" the king asked, but already knowing he's right and is completely horrified. He used all his willpower not to show his complete horror. But his fingers twitched a little as he twiddled them.

"Turbo twins? Not sure I've ever heard of them, King Candy."

"They're the NPC'sth of that old racing game, TurboTime! They're sthtill alive? How can that be- I wasth sthure they died in the unplugging-"

King Candy cut himself off, realizing he's talking to himself out loud in front of somebody he could never tell. Sour Bill just stood there with an eyebrow raised.

"Nevermind!" The Sugar Rush ruler told his sour assistant, jerking his hands out in front of him, his palms facing Sour Bill causing the short candy man to flinch.

Twiddling his fingers and thumbs again, King Candy looked down and made a decision, looking back up at Sour Bill, then started to leave on foot. Before Sour Bill could ask, the monarch called back to him,

"Sthour Bill, you're in charge while I'm gone! I _need to check this game out!"_

_The king hesitated in his words just slightly. He had lied again, he wasn't really going for the game. He was going for his old NPC's._


	5. Just barely missed

The twins cautiously approached the gates at the end of the GCS. They didn't look like plugs, because these gates couldn't be unplugged, they were stuck to the station, unlike the gates that led to the games. These gates lead to the wall, and going through these gates had the ability to lead you anywhere a game character could go. Going through these gates _could _bring you somewhere by Wi-Fi, but that was risky transportation because Wireless connections are not as stable as electrical cords, and could give out or be turned off at any second, so not many ever used Wi-Fi to get around, when it was even available. The brave souls who did often didn't survive the trip, so it was highly advised by the Surge Protector not to travel through Wi-Fi unless your life depended on it, which it usually didn't.

The boys got odd looks as they passed through the gates that led into the wall and beyond, and not many people ever went boys thought they were home free, until-

_**Beep-beep.**_

The Surge Protector blipped out of the ground in electrical energy holding his clipboard beside the two homeless racers.

"Names?" he asked without looking up. Neither of the boys had ever been pulled over by the Surge Protector, because he usually only did it to suspicious characters. But, considering they planned to _leave the arcade, _it made sense that he stopped them in their tracks.

Ted jumped, startled by the sudden beep sound and slightly transparent red flash at the gate. But he quickly stammered out, "T-Ted, sir. And this is Teddy."

The Surge Protector wrote that down and then asked blandly, "And where are you coming from?"

"The Game Central Station, sir. We don't have a game, we're homeless." Teddy replied, a bit embarrassed in a forced smile.

"Mmm-hmm… And where do you plan on heading?" The Surge Protector asked finally, ignoring Teddy's embarrassment. He had other things to worry about.

"Um, that new racing game that we got connected to- the one from the player's Gamecube who moved close enough to the arcade?" Ted answered a bit uncertainly. He wasn't sure how sarcastically or casually he could answer such a serious guy like the Surge Protector, so he decided not to take his chances.

"Ah, yes. That," the protector started, "I suppose you two can go through, being without a game. Proceed." He states, looking up as he allowed them through, before blipping away again into the electrical cords just to blip to another "suspicious" character back in the station.

The twins continued on, and the other side of the gate looked basically the same way any of the other gates did, it opened to a room that had the cord opening on it, only this cord was much bigger. And it had two railway tracks instead of one, as well as them looking much more modern. There was still graffiti on the walls, but there was less of it.

The twins both stared at the cord tunnel in awe, it was much bigger than the other ones, considering it could hold two bits of transportation at once. Slowly approaching it, they listen in silence. When they hear the sound of something coming, they back up. On the right railway, a large and long, sleek and white magnet train approaches at a fast pace, but it slows as soon as it comes into clear view. The front window is dark, but the brothers can see inside. There's no driver, as these things don't need drivers. On the side of the train, which has now blocked the brother's view of the other railway because it was so large, there was the print letters spelling out, "Mario Kart: Double Dash!"

On the front nose of the train had the picture of a grey, odd looking cube which looked like a swirl, only it was made to the shape of a box and shaded to make it resemble a cube. Above the cube it said "NINTENDO" Below that it said the word "GAMECUBE", both in small print, making the cube most noticeable. Otherwise, the magnet train was completely white and shiny and new.

"Woah," Teddy started, while Ted just stared. They whipped their heads to face the door when it slid open, and what appeared to be Toad stepped out, followed by a few Koopa Troopas and some ones with red shells and wings.

With the most annoying high-pitch voice, Toad spoke to the turtles, "And this is Game Central Station like I've been telling you about! Feel free to explore, because our players are about to go to school so you wont be missed yet!"

As the turtle-tourists walked off admiring Game Central, the twins cautiously approached Toad, who looked up at them and asked, "What are you two looking at?"

"Well, uh, you're Toad, right?" Ted asked, smiling with an embarrassed expression.

"Well, yes I am. You two are?"

"I'm Teddy, and this is Ted." Teddy answers, gesturing to Ted when he addresses him, "We wanted to ask if we could perhaps come with you guys to your game, and maybe, um, race?"

"You want to race in our game? Why? You guys look like racers, shouldn't you two have your own game?" Toad asks, raising an eyebrow, though this is barely noticeable due to the mushroom on his head.

"Well, uh, thing is out game was unplugged a long time ago.."

"Unplugged?"

"Yeah, meaning we don't have a game to go back to anymore."

"So wait, unplugging is like deleting a save file or breaking a disk?" Toad asks, tilting hish ead to the side as he started to understand.

"Yes, I guess so." Ted finishes, "We're homeless now, and don't ask us why it's kinda a long story…"

"Oh, well then, I guess I could let you come. I'm sure Mario and Luigi wont mind. But I just got here, let's talk here first." Toad requests, starting to walk toward the station, obviously not in the mood to get back on that train. "I'll teach you about the game before we go so you're prepared, I guess."

The twins follow him and both exclaim, "Thank you!"

With big grins, the two siblings follow the short mushroom man as he starts to explain their game to the retro racers.

_**Meanwhile..**_

The royal candy king known as King Candy strutted down the Game Central Station as quickly as he could with his slightly _unusual _walk cycle. If he was back in his old form, he could get there a bit quicker than this, but it would have to do. It has done for at least ten years. The monarch got odd looks from the people around him because he was not the king of guy who left his game like this. He hardly ever left, anyway. When he first became king, it was mostly due to paranoia that somehow his disguise would malfunction or someone would somehow recognize his altered voice, but it grew into a habit and he rarely left. He WAS king after all, what business would a king have with walking around the station all willy-nilly?

The loudspeaker spoke out, "The Arcade is opening in five minutes. Please report to your game."

King Candy scowled. He didn't win in the Random Roster Race anyway, he somehow managed to falloff the track and get hit with a few Sweet Seekers. He got tenth place and he had to grit his teeth and clench his fists so hard that they hurt to stop himself from literally punching the winner, Taffyta. He would have done that if he lost in a race _this_ horribly against the twins, but this was a 9 year old kid we were talking about. So King Candy left that scene as quickly as he could gripping the steering wheel until his knuckles were white all the way home so nobody had to see him angry enough to flip tables.

But the king had to be thankful, now he wouldn't be on the Roster and not be there for players to play as. Because if he was there, and a player chose him, like they usually did, his kart would be sitting there alone and Mr. Litwak would almost certainly set that game out of order. But, still. The king was quite mad he let himself lose that hard and get humiliated by being beaten by _children._

Stepping through the gate on the left, he was suddenly stopped by the sound,

_**Beep-beep.**_

And he jumped and yelped with surprise, clearing at least a few feet before coming back down as the Surge Protector appeared, and he asked flatly,

"Name?"

"U-uh.. King Candy." The royal candy man replied. He hasn't been pulled over by the Surge Protector in _years, _and it startled him.

"And where are you headed?"

"Through here. To that new Mario Kart game, and I'm coming from Sthugar Rusth, obviousthly." he replied to the electric blue man questioning him.

"Don't you have a Sugar Rush game to be participating in?"

"I didn't win the.. The rosthter race…" King Candy scowled, gritting his teeth as he spat out the words he hated to be true. "I wont.. Be missthed…"

"Ah, okay.." The Surge Protector finished, giving King Candy a suspicious look, before concluding his sentence, "Proceed…"

And then the electric man blipped away once again.

The GCS had become quiet as all the characters went back to their games, awaiting to be played.

Continuing through the foreign gate, the monarch just saw a white magnet train pulling away from the right side of the train. He also heard the annoying voice of toad not too far away, and he seemed to be talking to someone. Or some people, about his game, but King Candy couldn't care less. He was just about to check it out. But he was stopped by the sound of a second Magnet train, this time on the left side, pull in and block his view of the right side of the gate's room. It had "Mario Kart: Double Dash!" on the left side of it, and probably on the other side too, and on the front it had an odd cube design, with "NINTENDO GAMECUBE" on the top, and finishing on the bottom if it.

Interested, the short king approached the magnet train,and the door opened, and a bunch more Koopa Troopa's flooded out of it, all of them ignoring the king. Once all the green turtles passed, King Candy peered inside of the train. It was very nice, it has seats on either side of it, and every so often you'd see a pole going from the floor to the ceiling, probably to hold onto if there were no more seats. This gave the monarch the idea that this train moved very fast.

King Candy stepped inside, looking around. Nobody else was on board, but he heard the sound of the automatic sliding door closing behind him. Whirling around, he just saw the door lock itself shut behind him, and a small loudspeaker inside of the train announced,

"Now heading to Mario Kart: Double Dash."

Before the king could react, the train burst into life and shot down the cord like a bullet. It nearly flung him into the wall of the train, but he managed to grab hold of the pole and keel himself on the ground , but not before he yelled as the magnet powered train shot down the cord at mach speed.

"_**AAAHHAHHHHHHHHHHHH-!"**_


	6. Needing an explanation

"So, our game has power ups. You drive through the power up boxes and you get a power up. Sometimes there are power up boxes that are two in one, giving _both_ of you a power up to hold."

Toad's loud, annoying voice seemed to echo off the walls of the station. Ted and Teddy had sat down in a chair with Toad across from them over the motherboard carpet on the other side of the station. The more Toad explained, the more the two brothers became interested in that game. They felt it was _made _for them. Sure, they both liked to race on their own without cooperation, but this could be the first time they could ever use their cooperation and teamwork skills on the racetrack. It was the name of the game to be in teams on a racecar- one drives, the other throws the power ups and grabs and uses them. With the plus of being able to switch between the jobs at any time in-race. Oh, and it was gloriously not made of candy and had multiple different tracks of a huge variety!

"Could you go over the power ups, Toad?" Ted asked eagerly, "I really wanna know what they are! Back in out game we didn't have power ups. Sugar Rush does, but we've never raced there."

"Ah, yes, of course. Well there's shells. Green shells, red shells, and blue shells." Toad starts, "And both of you have to watch out for blue shells if you're in first place. They're one of the deadliest power ups in the game."

"How so?" Teddy asks, "They don't sound so bad, just some shells with color differences right?"

"Oh no… no no no no no. Don't go around Double Dash thinking that, or you're in for some huge pain and loss. Blue shells are turtle shells that are blue, have spikes on them, and have wings. When somebody throws one, it goes straight for the people in first place, and explodes on impact."

Ted and Teddy's smiles fall into big frowns.

"Oh, that sounds dangerous…" Ted mumbles.

"And red shells are only a bit better. When thrown, they follow the closest person to them, and hit that person. But, unlike blue shells, they can be avoided if you throw a banana or another shell behind you so it hits that instead. Same with green shells, but they just glide around aimlessly over the ground until they hit something when thrown. They're better used for protection against red shells than a projectile."

"Okay, so those are the shells, we'll keep that in mind." Teddy states, starting to get nervous about blue shells. They sounded like they could kill them.

"And no, you cant be killed on the racetrack, if that's what you're worried about," Toad reassures with a smile. "It's a game geared toward kids, so you cant get killed. You CAN, however, get seriously injured."

"Oh.. Well. That's very.. Comforting, thank you." Teddy sarcastically remarks, rolling his eyes.

"Okay, I already told you about bananas. They slip you up. Basically it," Toad continues.

"Okay.. Shells… bananas.. Good to know…" Teddy mumbles.

"There's also fake item boxes. They look exactly like normal ones, only they're red tinted and have an upside down question mark instead of a normal one inside of them. They basically shock you if you run through them and you don't get any power ups out of them." Toad finishes, "And there's invincibility stars. They make you feel fantastic, pump your adrenaline, make you glow a bunch of flashing colors, make you go really fast, and you can plow through anything and anyone and not lose speed while a little tune plays for a short period of time."

Ted looks at his brother with a small smile. That sounded like fun to him, but Teddy just scrunched his eyebrows. To him it sounded like something really dangerous if somebody _else_ had this power up.

"And getting powerful power ups like stars or blue shells is rare, and usually only people kinda in last place or some sort of place lower than halfway get those power ups to be fair."

Teddy relaxes slightly, but he's still a bit tense about what would happen if they ever got into first place.

"So.. Anything else about power ups we should know?"

"Well, each person has their own special power up which they have a chance of getting when they get a power up. For example, me and Toadette have a chance of getting a golden mushroom, which is like a normal mushroom, it gives you a boost of speed when you use it, but the golden mushroom gives you nonstop boosts until the time you have to use it runs out. Mario and Luigi have fireballs, Luigi's being green, that they can throw. You getting it?"

The twins thought for a moment. If every character had their own power up exclusive to them they had a chance of getting, would the twins have their own power up?

"And as for you guys, I'm not so sure, since you're not from our game." Toad says, putting a hand to his chin as he thought. "I don't think there's a big chance of you guys having your own power ups, unfortunately. Oh well."

The twins sighed, putting their elbows on their knees to support their heads as they rested their cheeks on their fists. Gee, they kinda wanted a power up of their own, but they guessed it made enough sense, they weren't even from the Gamecube. They were arcade characters, and in their game they didn't get power ups _at all._

"So anyway, so what's up with this arcade? I didn't get too much information from that Tapper's place." Toad finally asks, breaking the silence as he gestures to the entire station with his hands. "Like, how does it work? Why are all these plugs sticking in here?"

"Oh, well, this station is where a bunch of the games in this arcade are plugged into. Those gates are the ways to get into different game consoles in the arcade." Teddy answers,he gestures to the different plug gates when he mentions the gates, "It's pretty simple really, This station is where all of the games are connected to and able to mingle."

"Huh, in our game we cant really mingle with anybody because the Gamecube can only hole one game at a time. This is the first time we actually met other games in person."

"Really?" Ted asks. It seemed strange to live only with your game's members for awhile, even if they just recently showed up. Hell, even living with Turbo forever would get old soon. The twins liked to be able to visit other places freely. "Well, glad you got to meet other games."

"Yeah, it's pretty nice so far," Toad critiques, looking around. "Its very roomy in here."

Toad pauses, and then looks at the two siblings. "So, you were once from a game, right? I told you about my game. What was your like?"

Ted's expression falls into a frown. "Well, Toad, it was simple, but it was great. Only place we could call home. Even if it was old, the track was just an oval, no power ups, and our houses weren't exactly the nicest places in the arcade.. But it was a place we could call home.." Looking down, ted just sulks, and his brother pats his back a few times then comfortingly rubs it.

"Yeah," Teddy finishes for his brother, "Simple and boring or not, it was awesome, and at the time, we were the most popular game in the arcade."

"So wait, if you were the most popular, why did you get 'unplugged'?" Toad asks, raising an eyebrow as he fishes for more answers, observing how saddened it made the more sensitive brother, Ted.

The two racers paused for a minute, recapping the events of Turbo driving off in an angry haste in his car, the Red Rocket, and they had to watch in horror as he went into RoadBlasters while it was being played and glitched everything up, putting that game out of order. Mr. Litwak had told those kids to play TurboTime instead, but when they arrived, Turbo was nowhere to be seen.

The two twins clearly remembered Litwak's look of complete confusion with the slightest pinch of horror, when he realized that Turbo wasn't in their game anymore, but was last seen in RoadBlasters, which basically got internally destroyed by him. They both imagined Litwak completely creeped out and haunted by the fact that Turbo exited his own game somehow and ended up in a game he wasn't programmed in, breaking it while yelling his catchphrase.

TurboTime was Litwak's very first game he ever bought when he started his arcade business, and the twins knew how upset he was when he had to see it go. To Litwak, Turbo and the game itself was a game deep in his heart. Turbo basically started Litwak's whole arcade, and the twins figured Turbo would never be forgotten. But inside the games, Turbo was known for a much more negative reason.

Finally gathering the courage to speak to the little mushroom character, Teddy says flatly, with a dash of sadness in his voice,

"Well, our main character, Turbo, loved all the attention he was getting by the players. He had a humongous ego- and his ego was very hard to crack down because he knew the players all loved him. But, after a good long chunk of years, a new racing game came out, RoadBlasters, and the players instantly liked it better. Turbo didn't take that too lightly, and um.. He did an unthinkable stunt which ended up getting both our game and RoadBlasters unplugged.. And he died in the process…"

Toad frowned. That story sounded horrible to him. But, taking notice of Ted about to break into tears, and Teddy looking down and away with a mixture of sadness, longing, and frustration in his expression, he decided to say something.

"Oh, well, gee, I don't know what to say. Sorry about that, losing your game and main character…"

Ted sniffled, but didn't say anything. Teddy spoke up, though. "It's fine… That was a whole bunch of years ago... we're as over it as we can possibly get…"

"Well, okay then. What do you say we bring up the mood by going into my game and get you guys a kart so you can race, eh?"

The two NPC's perk up. "Right now?"

"Yeah! I'm kinda done with this station, anyway. Gotta get on the racetrack to get rid of those bad feelings, right?" Toad says enthusiastically, standing up in his chair, which wasn't much of a chance considering he barely has any legs anyway.

"Awesome! Let's go!" Teddy exclaims with a smile growing on his face. He gets up and yanks his brother up too.

"That's the spirit! Now lets go." Toad says with a smile on his own face, and he hops on the ground and heads for the gates that lead out of the arcade, and the two grey skinned racers follow him, giving each other looks f excitement at being able to race again after so long.

_**Meanwhile…**_

_**King Candy held onto the pole in the train for dear life as the shot down the electrical cord so fast that all he could see in the windows was a blur of black and electric blue. He had finally stopped screaming but he was gripping the pole with an iron fist.**_

_**To his confusion, he looked down and saw his body start to glitch. Red pixels and 0's and 1's separated from his form and put themselves back together rapidly, occasionally showing a white jumpsuit with red boots that had white soles. **_

"_**What the-?!" The monarch asked himself, however his voice began to crack and glitch as well, before he felt a sudden pull on his form, like an invisible wall he went through that tore off his disguise. **_

"_**H-hey!-" The newly revealed form of Turbo exclaimed as his voice completely changed itself back to his original, the one he had back in TurboTime. He had no idea what happened- maybe it was the incredible speed of this train and traveling to a completely new console that ripped his disguise off like wrapping paper that was poorly wrapped over a present.**_

_**But his realization was short lived, he had lost his grip on the pole and he got flung backward onto his behind, as he scrambled to his feet and grabbed hold of the armrest of a seat. This train was going much faster than any of the other ways of transportation through different consoles had back in the arcade.**_

_**Holding on for dear life, but in a way enjoying the rush of the mach speed, he waits until the train slowed to a stop before he got up again. Turbo's helmet was half off of his head, and he took it off, brushing his black hair back and putting it back on. Boy, it was good to actually have a full head of nice hair without having to hide it again.**_

_**Turbo looked himself over. Everything was there, his white jumpsuit with the red stripe down his arms and around his neck. Red boots with white soles. Looking his hands over, he smiles slightly as seeing they were light grey again, just like they used to be. He brought is palms to his face and just rubbed it. His nose wasn't huge anymore, which was obvious because he had a better field of vision without it blocking some of what was below him. **_

_**He also felt the smile lines he had. He had gained them for smiling so much- mostly in TurboTime. He also had slight bags under his eyes, but he didn't mind. He was finally in his body again. But, was passing through that cord and gate like a reset? Was his King Candy persona gone?**_

_**Curious, and a bit nervous, he concentrated on going back into King Candy. He focused his mind on switching back, but nothing came. No glitches, no nothing. He remained in his Turbo persona.**_

"_**Oh.. No.." Turbo mumbled to himself, opening his bright yellow eyes.**_

_**He didn't have his King Candy persona anymore.**_


	7. Don't be a theif!

Turbo was shocked. Sure, he was himself again, but how would he be able to rule Sugar Rush if he didn't look or sound like the ruler? How would he even get past the Surge Protector like this? He's done it before but it was really hard. Hard getting out of RoadBlasters without being detected and into Sugar Rush when it first came out and reprogrammed it to his liking.

Putting his fingers against his temples, he began to get stressed out just thinking about what he could possibly do. This was a disaster! All of his hard work in that sugary shit racing game and all ruined because of a reset to his form! Now, in a matter of time, when the arcade closes, he wont be there to host the Random Roster Race like usual. Sour Bill will become suspicious, and his subjects confused! Oh where oh where has their sugary king gone?

Opening his eyes, Turbo got an idea. A stupid, revealing and risky idea, but it was better than nothing. The twins. He had to find them, and maybe get them to help him. They could hide him easily from the Surge Protector by standing in front of him, and they could provide a distraction for him in the castle so he could get into that code vault again, and put his disguise back on. Perfect, it was foolproof, but.. He had to convince them to help him first. How was he going to do that?

Tch, he have to find them first. Knowing them, they'd be really glad to see him alive. Especially Ted. Teddy might punch him for what he's done but end up hugging him anyway.

So, if that magnet train took him to the Gamecube, he should be here. Walking toward the automatic door of the train, it opens for him. Stepping out cautiously and quietly, he ends up in what appears to be just like the gates in the arcade, but, it looked more like a subway. There was lights in the ceiling, graffiti, the yellow line that you weren't supposed to cross when a train wasn't there. Very subway-like. In front of the racer was a set of concrete stairs.

He slowly made his way to the stairs and up them. He was greeted by the night sky, but it was very loud. Car noises everywhere, and tall buildings with neon signs and lights everywhere. It looked like a big city at night. The skyscrapers and buildings' windows were all lit up to illuminate the night, and what was the most noticeable was the street. It was busy, but not as busy as you might think. There were gaps here and there, as if it was supposed to be like that for more cars to pass by them easily. And some of the streets were blocked off, and bigger than normal.

Passing Turbo, which was odd, but it appeared to be a bus made up of segments of a large caterpillar on wheels. And behind that was a car that resembled a bomb. Well that's certainly safe for a heavily populated city.

Ducking into an ally, Turbo scans his surroundings. He's gonna need a car if he's gonna get anywhere.

To his delight, he spots a garage just across the street from where he stands. Carefully walking toward the edge of the street, he looks both ways, and seeing no cars coming toward him that are in close enough range, he makes a run for it, and bolts into the open garage and hopes he wasn't seen.

Looking over the car, he shrugs. Its not an incredibly good looking car- considering it was small, blue, had a red bent circle for a seat, a picture of a red mushroom with white poka dots and a face on the stem on front, and oddly enough it had a handle shaped like a smooth "n" on the back,and a space for somebody to stand on in the back. The exhaust pipes were above the back wheels, and the car itself was kinda small, as if it were built for a really small person. Even shorter than Turbo. Getting in the car behind the wheel, he finds the car's a bit too small for him, but it would have to do. Even if his gut was barely touching the steering wheel, and his knees touched the top of the car. But, starting it up, he steps on the gas and it zooms off.

Turbo gets on the road and drives around the cars easily.

But then it hits him. This road is a racetrack. It all made sense now-the roads being blocked off in some places, the room for racecars, Bomb cars as hazards, wonderful!

Driving past the intersection, Turbo really began to enjoy this game. There were no power ups on the track now, because a race wasn't officially taking place, but Turbo didn't mind. Its been years and years since he's raced on something not smelling of chocolate or artificial flavoring. This track smelled like smoke and exhaust and car engines and gasoline, just how Turbo loved it.

Now then, Turbo was on a hunt for the twins. Half of him really wanted to see them again and the other half wanted their help. He couldn't be certain which half was the stronger feeling. But he just had to keep a low profile, and he'd need to find those twins of his fast. He didn't want to have "King Candy" go missing for too long. He also needed to come up with an excuse for the cheerful king once he returned. That was going to be tough, but Turbo would pull through. He always did, he would do anything to get what he wanted.

Everything was going to be completely Turbo-tastic.

_**Meanwhile…**_

The twins eagerly followed the mushroom man Toad. Toad appreciated their enthusiasm and headed for the gate on the right. But when the beep-beep sound came up, he looked up and was greeted by the Surge Protector.

"Names?" He asked, his clipboard and pen ready.

"I'm Toad, and these two boys are Ted and Teddy. We're headed to my game Mario Kart: Double Dash. We come from the station. That's all we've been to." Toad replies with his usual annoying voice.

The Surge Protector mumbled something about Toad talking a lot, but said clearer, "Proceed, then." and zaps himself into the ground and electrical cords and is gone.

Toad walks forward again, and almost immediately the right magnet train pulls up to him and the two siblings. The door opens, but nobody floods out of it, and Toad just steps in and gestures for the twins to follow.

Stepping in after the mushroom guy, the twins admire how nice the interior of the train is. They both sit down in a seat, and Toad does the same on the opposite side of the train.

"You better hold on tight to those armrests," Toad warns, holding his with a death grip to put up an example, "This thing moves _really_ fast."

The brothers both obey, and Ted's a bit nervous. How fast exactly did this thing go? Would it hurt? What did it feel like to travel through an entirely new game holding place?

Suddenly, the train lurches to the side and takes off and keeps gaining speed. This causes Ted to yelp, but keeps holding onto the armrests and Teddy tries his best to not yell. Toad stays quiet too, but him being so small, is more leaning against the armrest as the g-force pushes him against it than holding onto it.

The speed of the train is so strong it yanks Ted's helmet off, and it flies back and hits Teddy in the face,causing him to yell,

"AAAHHOWWW!-" he yells, before Ted's helmet flies past him and clanks against the floor and slides up against the back wall left of the siblings. Ted's short black hair flutters rapidly against the g-force of the mach speed of this amazing train.

After about a minute, the train slows to a stop, and the two twins relax. Teddy releases his death grip on the armrests and rubs his nose, which took a hard hit from Ted's helmet. Hopefully it wasn't bruised.

Ted got up, and chuckles nervously, before patting his brother's shoulder. "Sorry about the helmet, bro."

Ted walks over to where his helmet lay, and picked it up. Parting his hair back to what he was comfortable with, he puts it back on, and Teddy grumbles, readjusting his own helmet, which almost followed the same fate as Ted's.

Toad gets up, and brushes himself off. "Well, here we are." he announces, stepping out of the opened automatic door.

Following Toad's footsteps, they step out and are greeted by a normal looking underground subway station. Grafitti of Stars and Mushrooms and, oddly enough, a picture of a blue shell with the tips of its wings sharp and dangerous looking, cover the bland walls.

Without saying anything, Toad walks up the cement staircase. Upthose stairs is a lovely city during the night. The windows are all lit and streetlights help illuminate the street, which both of the twins guessed to be the racetrack. Looking up, they spot a sign that says "Mushroom City".

"This is Mushroom City. I'm living here at the moment. Its heavily populated, but I don't mind. All NPC's anyway. Now let me go get my car and I'll show you around, you can ride on the back of it, I'm sure there's enough room."

Toad skips off across the street, easily dodging these odd caterpillar busses and cars and into what appears to be a garage. The twins follow when there's not many cars.

Toad looks around, but there's no car to be seen.

"H-hey… where's my kart?." Toad asks himself.

"Your kart is supposed to be in here?" Ted asks, looking around, but seeing nothing but spare tires and tools.

"Yeah! But I don't know where it went!" He exclaims, throwing his hands in the air with frustration. "_I'VE BEEN CARJACKED!"_

_At that very same moment the twins could have sworn they heard Turbo yell "Turbotastic!" with glee someways away, but they just shrugged it off. Turbo was dead, they were just hearing things._

_Toad grimaces and face palms, trying to calm down._

"_Grah, we'll have to walk. We'll get to Mario Circuit, I'm sure they have spare kart for the time being there. They keep the extra karts in Princess Peach's castle, I'm sure we can find you two one…." Toad grumbles as he starts to walk away, kicking rocks out of his way in spite. "Who in their right mind would jack my kart..?"_

_The twins sigh and follow him on foot. Shoot, they thought they would be able to be in a kart again after so long. But oh well, they'll have to walk awhile longer._

_Ted looks around a bit, his expression becoming confused. He thought he had heard Turbo yell his catchphrase again. Teddy took notice of this and asked him, "What's wrong, bro?"_

"_I could have sworn I heard Turbo…"_

_Teddy frowns, looking down. "I'm sure it's just your imagination, Ted…"_


	8. Finally

"WEEEE-HEHEHEHE-EEE!" Turbo yells as he swerves around the bomb cars, normal cars, and even a big caterpillar bus, "TURBO-TASTIC!"

He's been running laps around this course for awhile now, probably ten minutes. He's just completely enjoying the rush again, and the fact this wasn't his candy land reign. Here, he could scream his catchphrase as much as he wanted, because nobody in this game cube knew who he was and what he's done. And that made Turbo feel on top of the world.

Laughing like he's never laughed before, his old laugh, not King Candy's laugh, which more or less sounded maniacal, Turbo presses his foot down on the tiny pedal as far as it would go, and he shot forward. The first couple of laps around this "Mushroom City" track, he's figured out this kart could drift.

Drifting, Turbo sent sparks flying out behind him as he made a sharp turn, dodging another car and street light. When the sparked turned blue, he released his drift and it shot him forward, giving him a turbo-boost. His old car didn't do this. At least, he didn't think. It probably could have, being the best racecar ever and held its own special place in Turbo's heart, but there was no way of finding out now. Turbo had completely destroyed that car when he crashed it in RoadBlasters.

Turbo had found himself daydreaming about his old car, and how much he missed it, and he was greeted by a Bomb-car.

"YyAAHHHH-!" Turbo yells, as he rams into the explosive vehicle and it explodes, sending Turbo's kart flying in the air, but instead of killing him like he predicted, it just flipped him and his "borrowed" car a few times in the air before them landing back on the ground. Turbo's face was singed black from the blast and he had a massive headache now, but otherwise he was fine. How did he survive that?

Groaning, Turbo rubs his forehead, and brushes off the ashes from his face with his other head. He looked behind him and saw that the cars had not stopped. Widening his eyes, he starts up his engine again and takes off before one rams him.

With a grunt, Turbo decided to get off this track he had somehow survived, and find another. He did see somewhere a small sign that said it lead to somewhere else. He wasn't certain on what it said it would lead to, but he had to find it. He's had enough of the explosions for the moment. But hell, at least he finally remembered what it felt like to crash and explode…

Driving to another road, he saw a sign next to it that said, "Mushroom Bridge Ahead"

Okay, great. Another mushroom place. Surely he'd find the twins there.

Turbo put his foot down on the gas pedal and drove down that street, focusing on the road and hoped there'd be no more of those bombs on wheels. His head was already throbbing and his coded blood was hammering in his ears.

After about a minute of driving his too-small stolen kart, the sky began to lighten up. And before Turbo knew it, it was daytime.

The sky must have be programmed to have multiple times of day for each track, Turbo thought.

Soon enough, the city behind him had spread out to what appeared to be a nice town in broad daylight. There was an ocean not too far off, and a large arch-bridge went over it. There was still a street and roads, only no huge skyscrapers and neon lights. It had a nice view, actually. The green, lush grass reminded him of TurboTime.

Getting off the dirt road and onto the main street, Turbo simply drives around. He enters a tunnel tat's lid blue from the lights on the ceiling. On the walls are small rows pf glowing stars, as a decoration, perhaps?

Blinking his eyes when he's brought back into the sunlight, he realizes what he has to do at the moment. He's looking for the twins. Darn him, he's on a mission, not on a vacation! He has to stay low, but he certainly wasn't losing this car he borrowed. He slowed down a little, which he wasn't pleased with but it had to be done, so his engine didn't roar as loud.

He continued to drive around, looking for any signs that might lead him to any other tracks and as well keeping an eye out for two identical twins in blue jumpsuits and square shaped helmets.

But how exactly was he going to tell them he's been alive all these years, and he needed their help to re-take over a sugary racing game?

That, Turbo did not have a clue.

Meanwhile.

After a really long, boring walk full of Toad's angry grumbles and complaints, they finally made it to what appeared to be "Mario Circuit". To do so they had to walk over a few hills, which had a path carved into them due to the wear and tear care tires made over them. The path lead right to the racetrack , which was a paved out track around what must have been Peach's castle.

Which was in no way really tall or complex like King Candy's, but it was pink and pretty, and sturdy, nonetheless. Over the large brownish doors they saw a stained glass window of a blonde woman with a pink dress and princess crown. That was probably the princess.

The start and finish line was to the left of the castle. It had a banner over the track with a red and white checkered finish line spray painted on. There were trees in some places around the track, and the whole place had a very green feel.

Still scowling, but trying to keep a cheerful attitude, Toad flatly states, "Princess Peach likes to keep the place she lives in looking nice, that's why its overly-green…"

"Well she does a really good job," Teddy compliments, smiling a bit at the nice scenery.

"Now come on, lets get to the stupid castle and get some karts…"

The brothers are now starting to dislike Toad when he's in a crappy mood. But to their knowledge from their Toad from the arcade version of Super Mario Brothers, Toad didn't get in a bad mood often. But now they knew that when he did he wasn't a nice guy to be around.

But, after a few more minutes of walking, they finally make it to the castle. It was surrounded by a moat. But the doors, the big brown doors to the castle, dropped down like a drawbridge, and allowed them inside.

Inside of the castle was beautiful. The white tile floor was glorious, with beautiful staircases that led a story up, there were even large paintings on the wall. Some so lifelike it seemed as if you could jump into them!

But between the two staircases was a large door. Toad walked up to it and turned the doorknob, and pulled it open. What lie inside that room was completely wonderful to the two twin racers.

It was a large room full of different kinds of karts. It was lit by yellow lights on the ceiling, and the floor was concrete, but there were wonderful karts everywhere! Each of them designed to hold two people- one behind the wheel, the other holding onto the back to use items with their free hand.

"Woah… This is awesome," Teddy says, awestruck. Both him and his brother take a walk around the room, running their hands over the karts, admiring their creativity and diversity. Some were really big, some were normal sized, and some where small. One was even shaped like a Yoshi's head, and another was shaped like a green shell. A big one even looked like some warp pipes stuck together and put on wheels.

"Well, find one you like…" Toad grumbles, already getting into a small car that looks like it could be a replica of his.

The twins walked up to a kart that looked like a bigger version of Toad's kart. The seat looked like a normal seat and not a circle, and the padding was red, still. It was blue, had a white stripe down the front with no mushroom symbol, but otherwise it looked exactly like Toad's. Only bigger, just the right size for the twins.

Ted got behind the wheel, and gently stroked the interior. It's been so long since he sat inside of a car, and this car was beautiful. Teddy got on the back and held onto the handlebar, and found himself standing on a perfect platform behind the car seat for grabbing items and throwing them.

"Ohohohoehehehee~ Teddy this is it~" Teddy says, unable to contain his happy little giggles.

Ted starts the car up, and the beautiful, brand new roar of the engine is music to the twin's ears. Ted presses his foot down on the gas pedal and they lurch forward as the kart sets into motion. Ted's grip on the handlebar tightens as Ted drives right out of the door and across the drawbridge.

Both of the siblings happily laughing and enjoying the rush of driving a fast kart, they drive onto the racetrack and Ted steps on it, and the kart gains speed. They don't even care about the giant guard Chain Chomp snapping at them, they're too busy laughing, and whooping and hollering with joy.

It doesn't take long for Toad to follow them. It may not be his original kart, but he couldn't help but smile and race along with them. Driving around the track, Toad and the twins drive some laps. The twins were natural racers, and Toad found them hard to beat because they did so well on this track, it was simple and reminded them of their own game's track. Toad simply couldn't find an opportunity to drive past them and their passionate driving.

The twins hadn't had this much fun in years.


	9. More to be learned

"And beware, the harder the user throws the blue shell, the harder it beats its wings and the harder it hits!"

Toad and the twins had finally stopped and parked their karts on the side of the road in the grass. Shaded by the big lush tree above them, they had sat down and began to chat about the tiniest details of the game. Toad was seriously considering letting the two twins join their game-it was mostly his and Peach's say anyway. Despite Mario Kart games in general, It was the Toads and Peachs who made the final says about most things. They were both programmed with good decision making- being royalty and the royalty's assistant in a way.

The twins had both sat in their newly rented kart. They didn't want to leave it, since they hadn't sat in one for ages. Ted sat in the driver's seat and dreamily stroked and touched the interior of the kart and rested his cheek on the steering wheel with a big smile like it was his most sacred object that just saved his life or something.

Teddy sat on the back standing platform of the kart, brushing his hands over the back tires and exhaust pipes, not caring it made his hands dirty. Both he and his brother were in ecstasy. Toad wasn't one hundred percent sure they were listening to him, but he could not blame the two. Not being able to do their passion and what they were programmed to do might make a guy a bit clingy to it when they got it back. So Toad just continued and hoped they got anything he was explaining.

"And for most of the shortcuts, you need a mushroom. So only use them if absolutely necessary. If you get the three-mushroom power up, I suggest saving them until you need them. Some shortcuts require more than one mushroom!"

The two siblings just nodded and said "Mmmhmm…" in sync, not looking Toad's direction. They are still all wrapped up in stroking their rental car as a moth would want to a light.

Toad huffed, getting impatient. Thinking for awhile, he finally comes up with an idea.

"Did I mention our players have a few more Mario Kart games in their possession?"

That seemed to get Ted and Teddy's attention. They looked up, with wide, curious yellow eyes.

"Yeah. They do. Each of them has one they technically own- being brothers, you know. The older one has 'Mario Kart 7' for the 3DS, and the younger has 'Mario Kart Wii'." Toad pressed on, smirking, obviously satisfied with the twins finally being attentive, "And we have the capability of going to both of those games-and oooh, they have lots of different karts and tracks there! More power ups too. Hehehe."

Ted looked mystified. "More.. Karts?" Neither he or his twin knew or cared whata 3DS or a Wii was.

"And… Tracks?" Teddy replies with a questionable tone.

"Oh yes! In Mario Kart 7, you can put a glider onto your kart, and pull it out when you're high in the air to collect coins, or find an airborne shortcut! And your kart can pull out a propeller when you're underwater so you don't lose speed, you can even breathe underwater and race in underwater parts of the track in that game!"

The twins were both actively listening now, listening like children to their older sibling tell a ghost story while camping, only much less scary.

"Plus.. Karts are a bit customizable in Mario Kart 7!"

"Oohh.. Cool! Maybe we can go there someday!" Ted said, "I want to make my own kart!"

"Well, err.. It's a bit tough to get to that game. We can only get into it when the younger player plugs the 3DS into its charger overnight. That's the only safe way we can do it. However, you see that Kart of yours?"

The twins glanced at their kart and nodded.

"That kart was originally a replica of my kart. See the resemblance? Blue, got that thing in the front, exhaust pipes right beside the back wheels? We brought that over to the 3DS one day and brought it to the workshop to change it up a bit, just to see what we could do with the workshop in that game. To put it simply, that kart was a test. And it worked. So we're able to make completely custom karts when the 3DS is plugged in overnight, and if we're lucky, while the players are at school."

"That's awesome!" Teddy starts, "We've never tried making anything custom to our karts when TurboTime still existed…"

"Probably because there was nothing we really wanted to change about our karts, bro," Ted states, sighing, but rubbing his hand over the car seat he smiled again, "They were programmed specifically for us and we loved them,"

Toad nodded. "I understand. I feel that way about my kart. Love it to bits-" he looks down so his mushroom hat shades his eyes out of view, "-until some jackass stole it…"

"Well, I'm sure we'll find the guy who stole your kart, Toad." Teddy reassures with a small smile, "And we'll punch him in the face for you."

Toad looks up, smiling a bit. "Thanks you guys. Not sure why you're being so nice to me, we literally just met."

"Well, during the past hour or two you've showed us nothing but respect." Teddy says, pointing a finger at Toad when he addresses him, and points it toward himself when he addresses himself and his brother.

"And back at you. You guys are the nicest bunch of homeless boys I've ever met. Even though you're the only homeless boys I've ever met!" Toad says, chuckling. "Now, what do you buys say we have an official race with the other characters from this game? You guys seem skilled enough to tackle Rainbow Road!"

Assuming Rainbow Road was a really tough track, the twins laughed nervously and shook their heads.

"Maybe we should start small to get in the swing of things, Toad…" Ted murmurs.

"Okay, if you insist. But seriously, you guys probably have the skills to be able to stay on the track in Rainbow Road without falling! Heheheh. Now, the simplest track we have is Baby Park."

"Baby Park, eh? Wow, sounds so grown up…" Teddy sarcastically says, rolling his eyes and chuckling.

"Nah, I'm serious. It's a pretty cool track, even being simple. You might like it."

Nodding, the twins slowly heave themselves up and with one look to each other, they switch places. Teddy takes the wheel while Ted stands on the back platform.

"Lets go then, Toad!" Teddy says, grinning and putting his foot down on the gas pedal to roar the engine, but the kart was still parked.

Laughing, Toad gets up and hops right into his kart and starts it up. "Follow me. Right about now the Koopa Troopa and Paratroopa brothers should be out, they'd be more than happy to race with us!"

"Fantastic!" Ted exclaims, holding onto the handlebars of their custom one-of-a-kind kart as Teddy starts it up. Making a sharp U-turn, they turn around and follow Toad backup and over the hills with big grins on their faces.

Meanwhile

For about an hour or so, Turbo has driven around to multiple different tracks and raced through them all, but with no avail at finding his old NPCs. He was beginning to become inpatient. His kart suddenly felt much smaller than it was.

The sky above him had begun to become much darker now, and before him lay Mushroom City. Growling and cursing under his breath, Turbo grinds his teeth with anger. He had gone in a complete circle and found nothing! And its been what? Two hours? He needed to get to those twins or else Sugar Rush would panic. Turbo did not need Sugar Rush on its toes in security right now when he was trying to get back IN to get his stupid disguise back.

And mod knows what would happen if they found their King had gone missing. Turbo bet that there would be twice the Oreo guard security and it would be much tougher to get into that piece of shit code vault that just so happened to be placed in the middle of a soon-to-be heavily guarded castle. It would be hard enough to get through the fucking Surge Protector! If that guy did his job any better, it would be impossible.

As he sped through the streets of the city, something colorful glinted and caught Turbo's eye. Turning right, he finds himself in front of a building. A tall one, and the front sign said in rainbow neon led lights, "Rainbow Road". But that was not the oddest thing. In front of the door was a slowly rotating illusion of a rainbow-pulsating colored star. It created its own light, that mostly protected itself upwards into the sky. Like a spotlight, almost. The star seemed to be put there so in order to go inside this "Rainbow Road" building somebody had to step on it. Looking up, Turbo followed to light the star made, and it seemed to lead what looked like a racetrack in the sky. Literally, there was a racetrack floating high in the sky ,and it was rainbow. The track itself was a rainbow.

From what Turbo could make out at this height, there was a big, vertical rainbow tunnel in it, and the rest of the track was very curvy and twisty and challenging.

Could that have been "Rainbow Road"? Did this star on the ground bring you to Rainbow Road? And if so, how?

Turbo wasn't sure he wanted to find out right now. That track up there looked pretty high up, and he didn't see any railings. It looked like it was designed to make you fall off. And if there was nobody to catch you when you fell… Well, Turbo didn't want to scratch up his helmet and get a concussion THAT badly. He'll save this colorful, high-in-the-sky track for last. Besides, nobody was up there, otherwise he would see them slightly through the floor. He'd look for his twins elsewhere.

Adjusting himself to get himself as comfortable as possible in this kart, that was a bit of a challenge to steer comfortably, considering he had to suck his gut into be able to move the steering wheel to his liking, Turbo took off in a different direction. He thought he saw a sign that said "Baby Park Ahead" back there.

Well, that sounded fine. He hasn't looked in Baby Park, why not now?


	10. The hour of the race

Upon arrival, the twins looked around in awe at the racetrack called Baby Park. It was an amusement park. Smack dab in the middle of it, in some sort of raised track with some metal over it, probably to shield out the sun or something.

The entire track was a long oval. The twins' faces broke into big grins when they saw the simplicity of this track, just like their old one from TurboTime. This one was just longer, and had much more interesting scenery. Pictures of what looked like Baby Mario and Baby Luigi were hung above the track, probably indicating ownership of the track to the two babies.

"Well, here we are!" Toad announces, holding his arms out, gesturing to the entire track. "Took forever but we made it!"

The twins, still admiring the beautiful track, took notice of a green shell looking kart, built for two people, and saw two Koopa Troopas standing around it. One had a red shell and red shoes with his shell having wings on it.

"Those are the Koopa Troopa brothers. The first. The ones that the kids who own our Gamecube can choose to play as. They're quite talented racers, so don't underestimate them." Toad started to drive a bit closer to them, and yelling in his voice that hurt the twin's ears every time he yelled above the proper voice level, "HEY KOOPA BROTHERS! I BROUGHT YOU SOME ARCADE-DWELLERS WHO LIKE OUR GAME!"

The twins had to fight to not cover their ears and cringe. The two turtles replied back with a loud repose, in a language they couldn't understand. Koopa Troopa language, which they had heard before from the arcade game Super Mario Brothers. They still didn't quite get it, and relied on the expressions the Koopa Troopas had to even vaguely understand their emotion.

Deciding to follow Toad and approach the bipedal turtles, Teddy put his foot down on the gas pedal and drove forward, both him and Ted still giddy over having a kart again.

Toad seemed to understand the turtles, and nodded as the green one raised an eyebrow and gestured to the twins and then at their kart, speaking his language.

"Oh yeah, I know they look retro. They say they're from a game from the 80's. …And yes that's the test kart they have. Might as well let them have it, it works just fine."

The Paratroopa nods slowly, then says something to Toad, and points a thumb at their own kart and gestures to the entire track while he asks Toad something.

"-Oh, yes. They want to race. And euuhhh… I took them here because they mentioned to me that their old course was a simple oval. This is the simplest course we have, and they wanted to start simple before they go crazy like at Rainbow Road. Only the professionals win Rainbow Road, let alone stay on the track…"

The twins shudder. They haven't even seen Rainbow Road yet, and Toad made it sound like the hardest racetrack ever. Ted got a bit nervous thinking about "falling off the track". And Teddy just thought of how many times they could be spammed by power ups and get half-killed.

The brothers nod, and smile. Then they step into their shell kart, the green one behind the wheel while the red one gets on the back, flexing his wings. They both make a short noise and point to the ground next to them, a gesture that they're ready to race.

Toad understands the gesture and does a small doughnut spin, then backs up into place behind the starting line. The twins, getting the hint, do the same, but Teddy turns around carefully, not wanting to toss Ted off the kart by doing a doughnut.

Toad announces to everyone, "Okay you all, Koopa brothers, try to go easy on these two. They're newbies at this game, and haven't raced in a long time. Twins, be careful. There's a lot of power up boxes on this track-"

In mid sentence, Rows of floating power up boxes appear on the track, glowing cyan with a question mark in each of them.

"- as you can see, and everyone is an easy target. Especially me because I don't have Toadette with me right now."

The twins nod, and Teddy grips the steering wheel with anticipation. Ted nervously shuffles his feet on the back platform, holding onto the handlebar for dear life, and the race hasn't even started yet.

Toad fills in for Lakitu's role and starts counting down.

"Three.. Two.. One… Go!"

As soon as Toad yells go, the turtle brothers take off and Toad soon follows. Teddy hesitates, but slams his foot on the gas pedal when he feels Ted's shock and anticipation that Teddy had not shot forward at the right time.

"YyyyAAHHH-" Ted yelps, nearly losing his footing when Teddy propels the kart forward. Neither of the two racers were used to having one man on the back of the kart, standing up.

Teddy makes the first sharp turn, Toad and the Koopa brothers still far ahead of them, but Teddy hesitates once again, sensing his twin's fear when the car leans and Ted has to use all his strength to stay standing up while not touching the tires. That was one problem about their kart, the back wheels did not have any covering, and the man in the back was completely exposed to them. This made Ted incredibly nervous and Teddy could tell without looking back. Their twin bond made it obvious how Ted felt to Teddy and he tried to be careful.

"Come on, guys! I know you can race better than that!" Toad calls back, driving through a power up box, and a red shell materializes in his hand. He struggles to keep his driving under control with only one arm, but is obviously straining to do so. He tosses the shell at the Koopa brothers in front of him and regains his full control as the Koopa brothers get striked by the shell and spin out in midair, looking dazed.

Teddy grits his teeth and hopes Ted gets the hint, and speeds up a bit. Ted does, and holds on tighter, trying his best not to yelp at every turn.

Teddy and Ted brace themselves as they start to quickly approach their first power up box. Teddy flinches as he drives right through it without slowing down, and looking down, on the left side of his steering wheel is something he never noticed, two slots like in a slot machine, and the one on the left is spinning rapidly as if a slot machine was about to land on the icons and the player had to hope to get all of the same one in a row. The one on the right does nothing. But here there was two, the one on the right does nothing, and the one on the right smaller than the other.

The slot on the left lands on the icon of a red shell, and a good sized brilliant scarlet turtle shell materializes in Ted's hand. Ted starts to panic, because he's only holding on with one hand, and holding onto a shell with the other.

Teddy realizes that he had been given a power up, and quickly looks back and yells, "THROW IT! THROW IT, TED!"

Ted is taken by surprise at his brother's yelling, whom is determined to not get third place, and quickly throws it forward as hard as he can. In stead of just clanking on the ground uselessly, as soon as it hit's the ground it gracefully glides and starts to follow the Koopa brothers, who had fallen behind after they had been hit by Toad, who was in the lead.

Teddy grins, thinking he's home free, but all of a sudden, the brothers switch positions. Paratroopa takes the wheel, and Koopa Troopa stands on the back easily, and he drops a large banana peel behind him, and the red shell headed for them hits that instead, and breaks apart and vanishes as well as the banana, uselessly.

"Ah-wha… Hey!" Teddy yells, "That's cheating!"

"No it's not," Toad yells, on the other side of the track, "That's allowed, remember?"

Huffing, Teddy looks back at Ted, who looks pretty terrified of being up there. He yells back at his brother while still keeping his eyes on the road, "Want to switch?"

"Switch?" Ted echos, a bit surprised at his request, then becomes horrified. "SWITCH? We're in a moving car, Teddy! How do you expect us to do that without CRASHING?"

"Those turtle bros did it! Just trust me on this one! On the count of three, you heave yourself into the driver's seat and I get up and weasel my way back to that platform! You have to be fast to keep the steering wheel straight!"

"Aauuhh… Okay, bro.. but I'm scared… what if we crash? We wont regenerate!"

"We have helmets for a reason, Ted! Now, on three.. One.. Two…"

Ted braces himself, stepping as far right as he can without touching the rapidly spinning tire, and holds his right hand out so he can swing himself into the driver's seat with his left.

"Three!"

Ted yells as he flings himself airborne off of the safe platform, and he manages to twist his arm painfully, but he heaves himself into the driver's seat as his brother got out of it and jumped over the handlebar and onto the platform, almost landing on the wheel which would have sent him flying.

Grabbing at the steering wheel and stabilizing it, Ted feels much safer and relaxes. Teddy smiles, and grabs at the next power up box his brother drives through. The slot spins, and lands on an icon of a blue, spiny shell with wings. A bigger than the other shells, blue, and with sharp spines and powerful white wings materializes in Teddy's left hand as he holds on with his right.

"HahahahaHAHAHAHA! Ted, look! We got a blue shell!" Teddy exclaims, obviously excited to hold the magnificent weapon in his hand for the first time. He hurls it into the air in front of him, and it takes off with incredible speed with strong beats of its snow white wings.

"Oh, no…" Toad mumbles, and braces himself as the Blue shell goes around the entire course just to get to him, as Toad was far enough ahead to be behind the twins.

Theres a small explosion, Teddy looks back and starts laughing at Toad as he flips a few times in midair due to a blue mushroom style explosion the shell caused. And Toad just grimaces, shaking off the pain and keeps going. The Koopa brothers pass him and he spits out some curses and keeps going.

After seven laps, Teddy and Ted stop their karts, having earned second place, beaten by the Koopa brothers, but managed to shell Toad until they passed him on the last lap, making him angry and grumble under his breath comments about his kart not being his original.

"Well, good job I guess, you boys." Toad mumbles as the Koopa Troopa brothers salute the twins and Toad as they drive off.

"That was fantastic! Did you see that? The way I threw that blue shell at you? Oh it was great!" Teddy excitedly rambles, looking like he could start jumping around with glee at any moment.

Ted just laughs along with his brother, but he's rubbing his left arm, as it's still sore after that hard twist in the switch he and Teddy made.

"Yeah… It was pretty awesome." Ted half-heartedly adds, squeezing the area of pain on his arm to try and ease the pain.

"You okay, Ted?" Teddy asks, taking notice of him fidgeting with his arm and lack of enthusiasm.

"Yeah, I'm fine… Just a twist. I don't think I should jerk this arm around much anymore."

"Okay, then…" Teddy mumbles, feeling his own left arm, and he can just barely feel the pain his brother feels, but its faint.

"Well, then. Now its been awhile, we'd better be getting you two back to the arcade before our players come home from school-"

Before Toad can finish, a loudspeaker like voice announces to the game,

"Power button pressed. Power button pressed. Game console starting. Everyone prepare for racing."

"-… Oh no." Toad says, and the twins just exchange worried glances.

The boys were home.

_**Hey guys! it's the mod Qwer here. I'd like some feedback on this. More than just comments, but I want to get better! ;v; Would you mind critiquing my writing? That is all. Now be patient for the next chapter, I've been having writers block lately. Hehehheheheh.**_


	11. New tracks, new excitement

"Oh no no no no no… This is so bad.. What if the players see you?.." Toad trails off as he hops in his kart, and before the twins can protest, he starts his engine, and presses a button on the opposite side to the two slots. Out of the top of his steering wheel shows a projection of the player's screen. It just exited the starting screen of the game, and played the music that played when the game was first turned on quietly. As the players chose the cup they wanted to race, Toad was given the projection of the roster that the kids were now awkwardly staring at.

Toad's mouth dropped open a bit as he stared at the roster.

Walking behind Toad's kart, the twins stole a glance at the roster projection. What they saw shocked them just as much as it shocked Toad.

"You two.. Are on the roster…"

And Toad was right. The roster had shrunk itself to squeeze the twins in, but straying on the right, right next to one of the twins was an image that startled the twins more.

Turbo was on the roster. Right on the top row, very right. Unlike the other characters, he had no programmed racing partner below him, like the twins did, they had each other on the same column as if they were racing partners. Turbo was alone. It couldn't be possible, but there he was, the picture of Turbo's head with his name under it, same with the twins. White helmet, red "T". Blue square helmets, white stripe.

"H-how did we… How did he…" Ted stammered, awestruck by the projection,

A small voice, probably the youngest player asks, coming from the projection, "Hey, Kaleb, did you unlock these guys ever?"

The older voice replies, "I don't think so. How did those guys get there? They weren't there yesterday."

Kaleb eagerly says, "Well I don't care! New characters!"

Toad, without saying anything, points to the twin's kart and says blankly. "I'd get in that kart if I were you…" As if he were predicting the players to chose these sudden new roster members. The projection faded. The twins hopped back in their kart, exchanging anxious glances with each other. Why was Turbo there? Ted behind the wheel and Teddy in the back, they waited, starting to sweat with nervousness. How did they get on the roster?

Feeling a cold chill down their backs at the same time, Ted and Teddy froze. They felt as if something had just possessed them. Their eyes widened and their first instinct was to fight the thing that possessed them, but they found they couldn't. All they could do was move their eyes and make facial expressions and talk. The rest of their body felt as if it wasn't really theirs anymore, as if some other force controlled it.

Toad seemed to tell that they were panicking, and whispered to them, "The players CHOSE you two, relax!" When he found the twins not exactly relaxing, but seeming to get more freaked out at losing control of their bodies, they tried to fight it, and found they could break the possession for moments at a time if the players did nothing to control them. Ted flexed his fingers, not liking this alien feeling.

"Guys, let them control you. They left to get snacks from their mothers, just stay still until they come back to start their races."

"W-what is this, Toad?" Ted asked nervously, his eyes nearly bugged out from the shock and confusion.

"You know your old main character Turbo? He went through this every day, I bet! This is what it feels like to have a character play as you. I know you've never known what it felt like, being NPC's, but you have to RELAX."

The twins did, Teddy first was to allow his muscles to go slack. But the odd feeling still felt foreign to the both of them, and another chill went down their spine as the control took them over again.

"H-how did Turbo get on the roster, Teddy? He's dead!" Ted asked, his arm which he pulled a muscle on twitching involuntarily.

"M-maybe its because of the similarities in our code? I mean, our game was an old, simple game, this complex game probably recognized Turbo SOMEWHERE in our code… and maybe, a-accidentally put him on that roster…"

"That has to be the way.. He's dead… Right?.." Ted concluded, staring at his steering wheel awkwardly, half hoping what he said was wrong, but at the same time he was right.

**To the shorter one who was late.**

Turbo nearly jumped out of his moving car when the voice boomed over head. Turbo barely heard it clearly, but it said something about the game console being turned on? Did that mean the players were home? Oh no, where were those darn twins in this?

Ducking behind a stray tree in the green grass with his stolen kart, Turbo waits. Nothing else seems to happen, until another voice says a bit quieter, seemingly directed at him,

"Bringing to Mushroom Cup Grand Prix courses. Race starting momentarily."

Before Turbo could react, he was surrounded in blue light, and with a quick yell, he finds himself on a racetrack, in front of him, along with himself neatly in line for the race to start. He saw Peach and Daisy, Some Koopa Troopas, but one was red based and had wings in a shell kart, Mario and Luigi sharing a kart up front, Bowser and what seemed what could be his offspring, and Toad and Toadette in a replica of the kart he stole, but what he saw next freaked him out. Up in the first position is his twins, in their own seemingly custom made kart. They don't look back as I f they're being controlled by the players, their movements slow and smooth.

With a quick look around, Turbo realized he was in a place that he's looked before. It was Luigi Circuit. It wasn't incredibly complex, but it suited Turbo's tastes pretty well. Simple, like his old track. But still a bit of a challenge.

And the twins were right there. He had to contact them somehow. But, they were being played. He couldn't just ram their car and tell them he needed them in gameplay. Sighing with annoyance, he decided to just race this Grant Prix and get it over with, then explain himself later. Hopefully the kids wouldn't notice that he was the only one on the track without a partner at the back of his kart.

Lakitu appeared at the starting line, but he could tell he was holding up traffic lights which started the race as he counted down. Before Turbo knew it, everyone took off, and Turbo took off as well straight down the track. Unlike his previous time running this race, this one was packed with other racers, and the sound of roaring engines and spinning tires and yells and woops from the other racing pairs was heard. Turbo liked it somehow. But the twins up front seemed to know what to do. Probably the players thinking and doing for them.

But those players were particularly good and kept in front while Turbo stayed relatively near the back. Turbo did not like this, and pulling his expression in a scowl, he steps up his game and tries to get closer.

But the other pairs of racers around him were cutting him off, trying their best to pass him while giving him odd looks. Turbo knew well enough already that he wasn't supposed to be here, and he didn't need the others reminding him. Quickly swerving around Yoshi and Birdo, Turbo gains on the twins, who were far in front, with Toad and Toadette as a close second.

Driving through a power up box by accident, Turbo flinches, but looks down to see a spinning slot by his steering wheel. It lands on a green shell, and a green shell materializes itself out of pure code in Turbo's right hand. Keeping his kart going straight with his left hand, Turbo chucks the shell aside, and it bounces off the wall and slams into the Yoshi and Birdo's kart, making them spin out and yell.

Turbo chuckles. He liked this game. It had power ups like Sugar Rush, only he had a nagging feeling that this game would be more violent, considering this game didn't look like a pink girly wonderland.

But all of a sudden, Turbo, and assumingly the rest of the racers heard from beyond, probably the youngest brother playing as one of the twins,

"I'm tired of this circuit! Can we play Special Cup now?"

The older voice replies with an annoyed tone, "Cmon, little bro, we just started this cup!"

"Well I'm bored with it. I wanna play Rainbow Road."

Signing, the older boy grumbles, "Fine. You better not back out of that one too. I'll be the one driving, you suck at driving."

At that same moment, Ted and Teddy switch roles like they've done it for years. As soon as they have done it, Turbo felt time freeze for a split second, as if someone had clicked a pause button, and the next thing he knows he's at a raised starting line of a humongous colosseum. The dark skies darkened nothing as the bright lights around the track illuminated everything he needed to see. A sign above the starting line read "Mario Kart" as yellowish metal beams held it up, and stop lights hung out of the sides. Two boxes above the metal beams shown the letter "W" on the,. With a quick look around as the starting tune to the race played, Turbo saw that the entire track was raised off the ground in a colosseum, in the middle of which had a metal mesh ball surrounding the track, and rainbow colored boost pads and power up boxes every so often. This place was much more intense than that of Sugar Rush.

Turbo couldn't help but smile. The darkish atmosphere suited Turbo's likings at the moment. He needed an eternal break from candy roads and sweet atmosphere that nearly choked him during the first few weeks of his candied rule. Now this was more like it.

Turbo was at the back of everyone again, but Turbo didn't mind. This place looked exciting. Forget the twins and Sugar Rush, this was his perfect vacation! And what was this place called again? Wasn't it, 'Wario Colosseum'?

Lakitu held up the stop lights in front of the twins up front, as they were who the players were playing as.

Beep,

Turbo gripped the steering wheel of his kart harder.

Beep,

This was it.

Beep,

Turbo's mouth revealed his yellowed teeth as he anticipated the start of this race.

Beep!

The higher pitch beep and flash of green on Lakitu's stoplights signaled the start of the race, and everyone's kart's shot forward down the metal raised track, including Turbo's. The road remained straight, Turbo's excitement fueled by each roar of the engines around him as he accelerated. He ignored the looks and questioning comments of the other racers around him and he just kept his eyes on the road.

The road started to take a left turn and everyone went under the metal arches on the road. Up ahead Turbo saw the road tilting up and rainbow boost pads that would shoot everyone who drove over them through a ring of spinning fireballs onto the next part of the track.

Ohohoho, let's see those annoying candy kids race this track! Turbo shot forward into the air, his blood really starting to pump as the heat of the fireballs rushed over him as he flew to the next part of the track, him laughing like he's never laughed before. Landing on the road again with a loud thunk, Turbo kept his foot on the accelerator and started to catch up with everyone else. Going through a metal tunnel, Turbo spotted the twins up ahead. They seemed to be incredibly focused on the road ahead of them. Which couldn't be blamed, they were being played as, so their skills were automatically upgraded to perfect, even in a foreign game.

More boost pads. More rings of spinning fireballs. Wonderful.

Turbo shot forward again, the fire's glowing warmth fwooshing over him with the gust of wind he hit when he went airborne. A power up box was in the middle of the ring. Turbo grabbed it , the slot next to his steering wheel spun while it played its selecting tune, but turbo ignored it.

Only until he hit the next part of the track in front of him did a banana peel with a face materialize in his path. Scowling, Turbo tosses it aside at the road behind him. Useless.

Taking a sharp U-turn under more metal arches on the track, Turbo drifted and game himself boosts. He was pretty sure his old kart could do this, but he didn't quite remember doing it, ever. But boy, did Turbo like it.

Driving through more item boxes, the slots spun rapidly as Turbo looked up to see a massive up-going ramp with boost pads all over it. Looking around quickly, Turbo had a great view of the entire colosseum and that ramp packed with rows of boost pads would give him a better one.

Arriving on the boost pads, Turbo shot forward and the rush of the wind nearly deafened him but he could care less. The slot landed on a red shell, and one materialized in Turbo's hand. Turbo tossed I t behind him, needing to keep both hands on the steering wheel to keep it steady as he anticipated his kart going flying.

Shooting in the air, Turbo laughed loudly once more, not noticing the Twins giving each other confused looks in front of him. Turbo and the rest of the racers either far behind him or in front of him landed on a large pan of metal with a star on it, designed for the racers to land on that, and that was the next part of the track. Going downhill now, Turbo sped up a little under the sign that said "Super Wario" with Wario's head in the middle as he took a sharp left.

His sharp turn turned into a downward spiral in the track, making up for the height he had made as he drove down and down and down, too excited and laughing too hard to get dizzy at the slightest. This may not be his game, but by golly this was his CODE!

The track straightened out a bit to a bit of a wavy track that went up and took a left and went down again. Driving through the item box, Turbo's slot went wild again ad he turned right slightly and drove up, and drifted left with a big grin and shot down the track once more. Turbo nearly fell off the unrailed track, but managed to stay on board as the track turned left into another upwards ramp with boost pads. The boot pads shot him up with the small hill in the track and he landed back on the track, but the twins were still far ahead. The players were good.

Sharply turning right and driving through another item box, which was useless because he still had his which had landed on another banana peel, he grimly tossed the banana aside again and kept going.

The track took a sharp right and went up again, but with the strong right turn still going it suddenly ducked down and Turbo's stomach lurched in the sudden drop, but he enjoyed that. Something new, something unexpected, this was much more fun than Sugar Rush. No way he was going back now.

Driving under the sign that was just Wario's upper body pointing to the track, Turbo clearly saw another wide U turn to the right ahead of him. Driving through another singular item box, Turbo finally got his slot to land on a red shell, and he tossed it. It struck Toad and Toadette in their identical kart to Turbo's, causing them to spin out. As Turbo passed them, he saluted them and laughed maniacally. Behind him Turbo head Toad yell,

"H-hey, that's my kart!"

Turbo ignored them though. He kept gaining on the twins as he started the large U turn, but he was suddenly struck from behind, probably by a shell, and he spun out and smashed his face into the dashboard, causing his nose to bleed, and Toad and Toadette shot forward again.

Turbo growled, and drove forward again, wiping the blood off his upper lip with his sleeve, ignoring the pain. Those two little maggots were going to pay.

Turbo began to drift right as Toad and Toadette switched roles, as Toadette took the wheel amd Toad in the back, he pointed at Turbo,

"HEY! You're the one who stole my kart!"

Turbo ignored him and shot forward, wanting nothing more than to just knock them off the track.

The U turn ended and became a two way parted track, a large hole in the middle giving him two options on which way to go. There was a boost pad in the middle which Turbo could have used to fly over the hole, but Turbo took no chances. Turbo chose to go left around the circle and Toad and Toadette went right, but Turbo was too fast for them, his kart only holding him this bearing less weight, and he shot ahead of them when the road fused again.

Bright arrows on the track indicated where Turbo needed to go as the road went up again, and took another sharp left into a straight road with a concrete shade over it, darkening it. Turbo head Toad yelling at him far behind, but he was too far behind the white and red clad racer to catch his attention more than just a glance.

Driving through another item box, Turbo got another stupid banana. What did these things even do? Turbo tossed it behind him, and heard the sound of Toad and Toadette yelling and spinning out.

Oh. That's what it did.

The track opened up again and became metal again instead of brick, and went upwards slightly and a bit to the left. Another boost pad ramp was ahead, that would make the racers dive straight through floating item boxes. Up ahead, he had already seen the Twins do it, and he slammed his foot down harder, making the engine groan a bit as he sped up as fast as he could go.

WOOOSH, up he went and he drove through an item box and the slot span like crazy, until a green shell materialized in his hand. Turbo tossed it behind him so the Toads couldn't catch up with him, and he landed on the next part of the track. Taking another left, Turbo drifted and gave himself well named Turbo-boosts. Driving across the finish line, Turbo laughed as he still pursued the twins.

Last lap. There was only two laps in this race, considering its length. And Turbo loved it. He was eager to do this again, but he was unsure he'd be able to pass the twins. Winning would come later. Now was just to race.

**Boy oh boy was this chapter torture to complete! Thank god I got a video of Wario Colosseum to be played to watch as a reference to write out the racing scenes. This took me two days to write because I was so bored of it at first. But Wario Colosseum saved the day, heh.**

**So how did I do with the racing scenes? ;v;**

**Up next might be a sour bill chapter, wondering where his king is because the arcade opened!**


	12. Who's the real bad guy?

_**[Warning: This chapter has some miiild torture in it. Electric torture, that is. So, brace yourself, lol. I'm serious it ain't gonna be pretty, and even I don't like it much, but I'm just writing out what I personally believe Sour Bill's characterization is, as it was said that the color acid green was associated with evil in the movie Wreck-it Ralph. I'll let you draw your own conclusions from that piece or information. So don't kill me if you're offended by this! ;v;" ]**_

Sour Bill walked around his king's castle, which seemed a bit more empty without King Candy. King Candy sure is taking an awful long time to return, it had begun to worry his assistant. Sour Bill knew that if King Candy wasn't here, the glitch would find out, and try to get her hands on a real kart in the Bakery to try and race. That damn Vanellope just wont give up, will she? And now that she's got Ralph, the humongous wrecker on her side, she was going to prove a much harder target to lock in the fungeon than usual.

Just yesterday Beard Papa had managed to catch them trying to sneak into the bakery. Ralph's large build had made a bit too much noise when he bumped into the glass Beard Papa was sleeping before, and he had woken up and called the cops. Ralph and Vanellope fled, thankfully, before they managed to sneak into the bakery and make a kart.

Sour Bill and King Candy had immediately put up security cameras that day around the bakery wherever necessary and had hidden them all, and they were constantly monitored by some Oreo Guards. No way Vanellope was going to sneak back there again. Not the way she had before, at least. And Sour Bill had to do something about Ralph, maybe tell him the reasoning's behind his ratty-haired friend being banned from racing, then maybe he'd be against Vanellope too.

If Vanellope just accepted the fact that she couldn't race, Sour Bill doubted that she'd be thrown in the fungeon at all, but knowing King Candy, that might not be the case. Sour Bill was the only one who knew his ruler had a dark side. It was rarely shown, however.

On another note, a wandering NPC had found a stray cybug, still in its somewhat juvenile state, underground. From what he had learned from Hero's Duty, if they matured they'd start multiplying like crazy. That cybug was killed before it could do any such thing though. Calhoun had done so herself, as well as her and Felix getting along almost romantically then, and Felix had found Ralph, they conversed and Felix agreed to start treating him better, almost like a brother, realizing how much Ralph was treated like an outcast and a criminal. Their problems had been solved. Vanellope's, no. Ralph still helped her when the arcade closed, which was a problem.

But this was not Sour Bill's concern at the moment. He had to locate his king, who was gone a bit long. He was in charge, but what was there for him to be in charge of while the arcade was open? Oreo guards and the doughnut cops were strictly instructed to watch over that bakery and arrest Vanellope if she ever came. Ralph could be a problem, but he would be reasoned with if he got violent. Everything was taken care of.

Sour Bill walked down to the front door of the castle and left, walking down the royal road while the arcade began to open, and stuck to the sidelines where he'd never be noticed. The racers just did their thing.

Stepping up the rainbow bridge was a pain, because it was very steep and Bill's build wasn't best for climbing things, but he manages and walks out into the Game Central Station. It's empty, save for the Q*Bert gang, whom were still being discussed over fy the Fix-it Felix Jr. gang on what to do with them and maybe give them homes within their own game.

Sour Bill spotted the Surge Protector walk by, and he walks up to him and asks him in his same bland tone,

"Excuse me, have you seen King Candy?"

The Surge Protector looks down, and nods, looking back to his clipboard, lifting a paper up so he can see the one under it, then says, "Yes I have, he went over to the Gamecube. That's where I saw him last, went into that new racing game outside of the arcade, Mario Kart: Double Dash."

"Did he seem rushed?"

"Yep, he seemed a bit eager to get moving. Quite odd if you ask me, that king rarely leaves his game in a haste."

Sour Bill nodded. "Mmhmm… Its really odd, when I mentioned those.. Uhh.. 'Turbo Twins' he started acting strange and wanted to leave."

"The TurboTime twins? They went in there too, neither them or King Candy have returned according to my records…"

Sour Bill stared at the other side of the GCS, looking through the short gates but not seeing anything move. Sour Bill nodded slowly.

"Then I don't believe there is anything I can do to bring him back. If his absence becomes noticed and the racers begin to worry, I will have no choice but to look for him in that game."

"I'll let you know if I see him, Bill." The Surge Protector replies, then zaps himself into the walls and away without another word.

Sour Bill turns right back into his game and heads right back to the castle. He'd have a lot of filling in to do while the king was gone.

Sour Bill nearly tumbled down the rainbow bridge, but carefully easing his way down while leaning backward he managed to stay on his feet. For him, walking out of the castle and back was a long and boring trip, others could do it easily. He was short, couldn't drive even if he wanted to, and weak. That's why he didn't leave the game often. He saw no reason in it and it was such a chore to do it. Why did he even bother to go ask the Surge Protector where King Candy was?

When he finally made it back to his front doors, he opened them and stepped inside to see the very girl he didn't want to see.

Vanellope. She had snuck in the castle while he was gone. Vanellope's eyes widen as she's in the pose of tip-toeing from a window not too far away from the door. She was headed in the direction of King Candy's kart.

Vanellope and Sour Bill just stare at each other, each too surprised to speak. Then Vanellope turns tail and runs down the hallway.

Sour Bill yells, "Hey! Come back here, Vanellope!"

"Ahhh- no!" Vanellope yells back, glitching like crazy as she runs. She takes a left and Sour Bill follows her as fast as he can.

"Guards!" Sour Bill yells, and immediately the Oreo Guards step into the room from the door Vanellope was aiming for, and she yelps with surprise and scrambles to run the other way, but Bill runs right into her by accident and she trips.

The Oreo guards do not hesitate, being properly trained and disciplined and they take intimidating steps toward the glitch, as she screams and gets up and takes off again.

Sprinting down the hallway again, Vanellope finds herself cornered as she runs into more Oreo guards before she can run down another long hallway. The guards surround her and corner her into a wall, lowering their spears so she cant find a way to escape. Fearfully glitching, Vanellope presses herself against the salmon wall as the spears inch closer so she becomes immobilized. She looks about to cry, but Sour Bill is unfazed by her big puppy eyes and she stalks up to Vanellope with his eyes narrowed.

"N-no.. Sour Bill- please no…" Vanellope starts, but is silenced by a spear pressed against her neck. Sour Bill raises his detached hand to signal the Oreo guard to not inch it any closer. Nobody was certain if Vanellope would regenerate or not, and if she did, she might not regenerate in her death spot.

"S-Sour Bill?…"

Sour Bill does not reply to the glitch, and just looks up at her, and says in a flat, almost bored tone,

"Take her straight to the fungeon. Deepest part. Most unbreakable walls, and chain her up. Ralph must not be able to bust her free, let alone find her."

Sour Bill was well aware that if they put Vanellope in the cell made for her, with sad clowns painted on the walls, Ralph would be able to bust the door down because they were not made to be Ralph-proof. It was made before she had befriended Ralph, but Sour Bill knew better now that she had a huge wrecker on her side.

The Oreo guards nod, but Vanellope begins to cry and she screams as they start to take her away, using their spears to block any chance of her escape. She begs Sour Bill to let her go as he follows her and the Oreo guards to make sure she's locked up properly, but Sour Bill did not care. That was a plus about being coded to be sour, one does not care.

Vanellope didn't once ever shut up, she kept glitching like mad and spitting out threats and sobs and desperate begs to be set free, but the Oreo guards and Bill had other things to worry about. She was a threat to their game and had to be locked up, because she couldn't be trusted to not race willingly. She had many chances in the past, but Vanellope would not give up until she raced. Sour Bill couldn't allow that.

Going downstairs , Vanellope made a few attempts to escape, but it only resulted in her hurting herself and the Oreo guards just getting frustrated.

They walked down rock and stone stairs until there was no more sunlight anywhere, and a guard had to light a torch along the stone wall and they came across a cell. The deepest, darkest one. The door was hard metal, something never found in Sugar Rush, and Sour Bill opened it. It was heavy, no way Vanellope was getting through that.

"No no no NO NO PLEASE-" Vanellope starts, but is cut off when the Oreo guards toss her into the dark room and a few go inside as well to chain her up. The door is left open while the Oreo guards go to work. Its too dark to see very well, but what is heard is chains being picked up and fiddled with and Vanellope screaming, her crazy glitching lighting up the room a bit. But the Oreo guards chain her up by the wrists and ankles up against the wall, just enough so she could lean on it.

Sour bill saw a lever on the wall inside of the cell, and as the Oreo guards exited the room, he walked in and up to the lever on the wall opposite to Vanellope, while she fought and tugged at the chains uselessly and screaming and crying.

Sour Bill took a glance at the wall behind Vanellope. To her left it had a symbol of a lightning bolt spray painted on the wall.

This was one of the rooms that was electrified. There was a few of these kinds of rooms, some didn't have chains but had thick wires so the prisoner made no noise by thrashing when he or she was shocked, but this wasn't one of those. Not like anyone would hear the chains clanking anyway.

Vanellope followed Sour Bill's gaze to the wall to her right, and her eyes widened and Sour Bill could instantly see the fear in her eyes.

"N-no no Bill please no I-I'm just a kid-"

But Bill tugged down the lever anyway, and with a flash of an electric blue light Vanellope was electrified. She let out a earsplitting scream, followed by her glitching so much she was unrecognizable. Sour Bill grunted and he switched the lever back up and the shock treatment stopped, Vanellope collapsed to her knees, panting and crying softly, and glitching a bit, but otherwise her insane glitching she had done while she was being electrocuted had stopped. Her messy hair covered her tear-filled eyes, and Sour Bill thought she had enough for now.

"Y-you're really the bad guy…" Vanellope croaked out to Sour Bill, and started to gasp and cry more, "N-not even King Candy would do this to a kid…"

Sour Bill said nothing, and just headed out the door and directed the Oreo guards away, and even they were a bit puzzled by Sour Bill's actions toward the young girl, but they did not question it. She was a threat to the game and they guessed Sour Bill needed to take extreme measures.

Sour Bill closed the door behind him and locked it shut, and headed back upstairs, putting the torch light out so Vanellope saw nothing but her own glitching and darkness. The last thing Sour Bill heard was Vanellope's sobs.

But he didn't care.


	13. Who would have thought

Turbo couldn't stop himself from grinning. He liked this special cup. He didn't care if Toad a few rows behind him was giving him the evil eye, and his original NPC's were in front of him and he couldn't get their attention. He was having the time of his life.

Three races down, and ever since he got third place in Wario Colosseum, fourth place in Dino Dino Jungle only because that stupid massive dinosaur stepped on his kart and made him lose his precious second place and third place spot, and second place in Bowser's Castle, this last course, he was determined to pass Ted and Teddy.

This place, the Grand Prix finale, was Rainbow Road. He knew it from the ground when he first glanced at it down in Mushroom City, which, looking through the semi-transparent rainbow colored track he could see the city from a bird's eye view below him. With a shiver, he promised himself he wouldn't be stupid enough to let himself fall off the side, which, most of the course doesn't have any railings to prevent the racers from driving right off and plummeting to the ground. Perfectly safe. There was railings beside him now, though. Solid rainbow railings, with some stars with eyes on them every so often.

With a quick look behind him, Turbo made eye contact with Toad. Toad scowled at Turbo, gripping his steering wheel and mumbled something Turbo assumed to be a threat. With a smirk, Turbo turned right back around and anticipated the start of the race, ignoring Toad.

In front of him to his right he saw the rainbow tube that went up and down. It was a part of the track, it probably shot the racers upward to continue the race. Fun. He also saw a big rainbowy figure of a giant bomb guy with feet, and directly in front of him to his left was a rainbowy figure of an egg. A big one. They were probably there for decoration, and they did their job well. They shimmered all the colors of the rainbow beautifully just as the track did. Even the starting line was rainbow-and-black checkered.

Turbo felt completely alive, better than he's ever felt before. It might have been the aura of the track, or something. The nice tune the rainbow track had might just be getting to his head, or maybe it was the beauty and appeal to his eyes that pleased Turbo, and Turbo hasn't even started racing yet!

Lakitu appeared in front of the twins, and held up his horizontal stop light and it started to count down with steady beeps.

_Beep. Beep. __**Beep!**_

The lights all flashed green, and all of the racers shot forward with different yells, but Turbo didn't say anything yet. He was focused on getting as far forward as possible and either nailing the twins with a power up or passing them manually. This was his race- and he was going to win it.

As soon as the racers went a few yards, Turbo found his kart being hurled into the air by a rainbow boost pad, and he's flung out into open space, his eyes dazzled by the rainbow shimmer and glow of the beautiful track, but he willed himself to focus. That was probably one of the factors that made this track challenging for the racers- it was hard not to look at.

Landing with a thud and downhill on the multicolored track, Turbo stepped on the gas. Oh if only he had his original kart, he'd be destroying the competition right now. Oh well, at least there was a challenge here. Finally taking a short right, which was this time surrounded by rainbow railing, Turbo jerks his steering wheel around to avoid being bumped off the track once the railing vanished. Taking a hard right and going downhill on a much wavier road, Turbo tries his hardest to focus on where he's going, instead of where he's not.

Oh, but there was a beautiful rainbow sculpted shell floating out in front of him!

NO! You need to take a hard left, there's no railing there, left left left!

Turbo jerks his steering wheel to the left and he does a complete downhill U-turn. That was close, but the twins, Mario and Luigi, and Yoshi and Birdo were still far in front of him. Not for long.

Taking a sharp right U-turn again, Turbo begins to gain on Yoshi and Birdo. This turn didn't have railing on the outermost part of the turn, but it had power up boxes. Turbo barreled right through it and the slot by his left hand began to spin as he drove past the two dinosaur like things.

Going straight down again, Turbo couldn't help but yell out a woop as he's shot into the air by another boost pad that sent him airborne. Adrenaline hammering in his ears, Turbo laughed with joy as he passed Mario and Luigi and landed with a loud clank on the next part of the track, landing on a large boost pad which shot him and his pursuers forward. Luigi, who was the one in the back, held out a red shell and prepared to throw it at Turbo, but Turbo's slot landed on a banana, and he tossed it behind him and sent the two brothers spinning out.

Luigi's aim was way off, and he threw the red shell behind him to hit Yoshi and Birdo instead, who yelled out as they spun out and crashed into Mario's kart.

Turbo momentarily glanced behind him and chuckled. This was too easy, since this track was hard, it was hard for them too, so they were easy targets! But far ahead of him, the twins shot off another huge boost pad and flew onto the next part of the track, which Turbo saw turned left and spiraled upward.

Doing the same, Turbo began to drift and boost himself, but those darn twins with their good players were doing the same, and drifted as they started to spiral. Boost pads were scattered around the huge spiral, and Turbo did his best to use every last one of them to keep up with the blue racers.

The spiral eventually evened out into a straightaway and Turbo drove through a power up box, and it span and span while Turbo barely paid attention.

The track started to get wiggly and curvy, and Turbo had to carefully swerve around it, it having no railing, to avoid falling off. Another large beautiful shell rainbow sculpture sat at the side of the track where it took a sharp turn to the left. The twins were right in front of him, and as the sharp turn left drove ever so closer, the slot landed on something Turbo didn't expect to see.

It was his own face. His own face with the word 'Special' above it. Turbo questioned it for a moment, but got curious and used it. Nothing materialized in his hand, but the whole world seemed to slow down, and Turbo's vision clouded to a short hallucination of his old game. TurboTime. He was in his old car. Confusion rose up in his brain, but Turbo seemed to know exactly what he was doing. And he took a sharp left around the curve in the oval track. Completely passing the twins who were in front of him, side by side, in their old karts. Positioned to where one seemed to be directly behind the other, as if they were in the same kart.

Turbo grinned wide at them as he kicked up dirt he didn't feel from the yellow track. The look of complete shock on their faces made him much more proud of himself, their eyes widened and jaws dropped. They both seemed to get paler as the world around them and Turbo slowed down slightly. Heh, they should know this was normal. Turbo gripped his old familiar car's steering wheel with his left hand, and with his right hand raised into a cocky and proud thumbs up, Turbo yells out to them,

"Turbo-tastic!"

And with that being said, Turbo shot down his old track, leaving the nearly paralyzed with shock and confusion twins in his dust. He felt great. This was wonderful, first place!

The vision around him seemed to dissolve into blackness and space and rainbows, and even his old kart morphed back into the small kart that he stole. The old track of his grew and stretched and glowed until it returned to the rainbowy, glorious track that wasn't his. Rainbow Road. TurboTime was still unplugged. But with a quick glance behind him, the twins were still there. In the same kart, however. And they both bore the same expressions of complete shock.

Turbo ignored them though, that power up that was apparently special made him feel awesome, adrenaline pumped through his head and he felt on top of the world and his kart shot down the track faster than it normally could.

Then, with a blast of the boost pads, Turbo was shot like a cannonball into a large starry and rainbowy tunnel-, no, it wasn't a tunnel. A pad on the floor shot him completely upwards. He was going completely vertically upwards in a rainbow pulsating tube. This was the tube he saw at the beginning of the race. The g-force and wind rained down upon him and would have normally given him a headache if he wasn't this pumped up about this race.

The next part of the track came down on him fast, but he found himself being shot over it and landing on it perfectly, and he shot forward on another humongous multicolored rainbow boost pad, just as he had before until the twins were far behind him. The awesome feeling of the power up he had used just them began to wore off until Turbo was racing like normal again. Turbo couldn't help but wonder what exactly that was. Whatever it was, it was awesome.

The road was a bit twisty now, with small boost pads scattered in a few places, and Turbo drove over each and every one of them so he could almost mimic the feel of that special power up.

Another large boost pad came up and shot him into the air again, past a huge rainbow shell sculpture to his left and onto the next part of the track, which at first, was safely railed off.

He drove through another power up box and drifted right as the road turned the same direction. It kept going right until Turbo realized it was spiraling downward, and he passed a pretty star in the middle of the spiral and kept going, determined to keep his place.

He passed the finish line when the spiral ended, and Lakitu informed him while on the road that the next lap was starting. Great, all he had to do was keep his place and not let those damn twins pass him again! He was home free, even the players found this place challenging.

**Meanwhile.**

Ralph was calmly doing his job. Ever since he and Felix made an agreement to treat each other better a few weeks back, everything has been great for him. The nicelanders started actually being nice landers, and treating Ralph like an actual human being aside from a wrecking animal who they were destined to fear and hate. Even Gene started treating him respectfully, but it took awhile. Ralph didn't mind of big Gene didn't see Ralph as a friend, as long as he didn't treat him like a pile of shit, Ralph was fine. Ralph and Felix were getting along great now, almost like brothers.

Since Felix was being played at the moment, Ralph had to smash the building below him at his normal post, a huge hole in the building where he stood and pounded on it, which spawned bricks that fell and proved a threat to Felix.

And there were ducks, too. The ducks flew across the player's visible screen and tried to knock Felix off and kill him, squawking with protest. They weren't programmed with intelligence, and they didn't exactly know what they were doing. They were programmed to hate Felix, though. And Ralph knew Felix was afraid of ducks.

Pouding the building with his usual force and a hateful scowl of an expression, Ralph attempted to knock Felix off the building with falling bricks as he was being controlled by the player, which Ralph saw by the massive screen in front of him. It was a boy, and he was concentrated in the game and not getting killed by the bricks or the ducks. So much to the point he was hunched over and biting his lip.

But eventually he won the game, and Felix got his medal and giving a Ralph a small wink, the nicelanders picked Ralph up and tossed him off the building. Ralph made a fake yell which was convincing enough to the players and he landed with a hard splat, face first in the mud on the side of the building.

When the player celebrated a bit and left, Ralphlooked up to see Felix looking down at him from the top of the building, and asked quietly enough for the players not to hear,

"You alright, brother?"

Ralph got up and brushed all the mud off of him and nodded. "I'm good, Felix. Been doing this thirty years, a man learns to get used to it." he said, lumbering back to the other side o f the building and offscreen- his start position. The nicelanders went back to theirs and Felix hopped down the side of the building until he was offscreen on the right side.

Felix gave Ralph a thumbs up and Ralph smiled, returning the gesture.

But while the arcade was open, since his little pal Vanellope was unfortunately a glitch, which he was told couldn't leave their games, he wondered what she did during arcade hours. Possibly waited around until it ended, like usual. King Candy would most definitely sick those cops on her even if she showed up while he was in game, since those cops didn't really have anything to do with racing, they were just there.

And when those nicelanders hoisted him up earlier to hurl him off the building, Ralph didn't see King Candy being played as like he normally was. Hm, wonder where he was.

But on a more important note, Ralph wondered what Vanellope was up to. Hopefully she didn't get into any trouble.

**Mod: Oh I absolutely adore bromance between Ralph and Felix! Waaaay more than Vanellope and Ralph's brother-sister relationship, heheheh. If you hadn't noticed i don't exactly like Vanellope. Or Sugar Rush for that matter. By the way, in case you wanted to know, I describe racing scenes by watching a video of that particular track being raced, and I describe what I see between pausing and playing it. Here's the ref i used, **[ watch?v=-5v7GDYW3lM ]** would you say I did a good job? I mean, at describing Rainbow Road so you could visualize it at least somewhat close to the video there... I want to get better at describing things I see in a way that keeps you interested.**


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